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Rep. Brooks to Newsmax: 'Gestapo, KGB-Like' Jan. 6 Panel Has No Right to Records

By    |   Wednesday, 01 September 2021 11:53 AM EDT

Rep. Mo Brooks Wednesday on Newsmax compared the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol to both the Gestapo and the KGB and insisted it has no right to obtain his personal and private communications through records from telephone, email, and social media companies being sought in connection with himself and others participating in the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" rally that day.

"They are private communications between my wife and I," the Alabama Republican insisted on Newsmax's "National Report."

"What right does this Gestapo, KGB-like entity have to investigate the personal information and communications of myself with my family members? My grandchildren?"

He added that he's not concerned about the committee getting anything from his records concerning Jan. 6 if the demand is limited to information specific to that day, "but I don't want them getting their hands on internal campaign communications involving my candidacy for the United States Congress or for the United States Senate. I don't want them getting their hands on private, personal text messages amongst my family members. They have no business getting that kind of information, and I really hate the idea that they're trying to turn this into a police state."

Brooks' comments come after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Tuesday warned tech companies that Republicans "will not forget" if they turn over phone and email records to the committee after it sent a request to 35 telephone, email, and social media companies to preserve records that it said could be relevant to its investigation.

Brooks said he can understand "socialist" Democrats seeking the records, but he can't understand why Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, the committee's lone Republicans, would go along with the request. 

"They ought to resign from this committee, or if not, resign from the GOP conference, one or the other," Brooks said. 

He added that there "weren't any text messages that I can recall" with then-President Donald Trump on the day of the attack, and even though he communicates with his fellow members of Congress, none of those messages related to the attack on the Capitol. 

"That's seemingly is what they want," he said. "I haven't gone over those text messages, but I assume that on one side of the other, there are probably some caustic words used to describe what is happening in our country, particularly with respect to the Joe Biden administration or Nancy Pelosi, but those are private communications."

The committee, meanwhile, shouldn't be "allowed to go on a fishing expedition, a witch hunt, a star chamber, whatever you want to call an expedition where they're just trying to go after 10 congressmen without following the Fourth Amendment probable cause requirements," said Brooks. "They have to come up with some evidence, some proof, some probable cause as a basis for engaging in this kind of expedition, and they haven't because there's not anything."

Brooks has been named, along with Trump and Rudy Giuliani in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) accusing them of inciting the violence at the Capitol through their rally speeches. He has denied the claims, arguing that he was acting within his official capacity as a congressman that day. 

Sandy Fitzgerald

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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Rep. Mo Brooks Wednesday on Newsmax compared the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol to both the Gestapo and the KGB and insisted it has no right to obtain his personal and private communications through records from telephone, email,...
brooks, jan.6, committee, capitol
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2021-53-01
Wednesday, 01 September 2021 11:53 AM
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