Running out the clock on January 6 investigation

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Sentences will be off next week to observe the holidays.

Members of Congress are asked for testimony on January 6; the TPLF retreats and asks for peace.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes.

Stymieing, stonewalling, and suits, oh my

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• Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), a Trump supporter and sitting member of Congress, has rejected requests for an interview and documents from the January 6 Select Committee. Perry is the first serving member of Congress to be called for testimony on his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. [AP / Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick]
• Perry is the incoming chair of the House Freedom Caucus, the right-wing contingent of the House of Representatives. He has a history of spreading misinformation, and allegedly had a role in trying to overturn Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results and install Jeffrey Clark, a Trump loyalist, as acting attorney general. [Washington Post / Beth Reinhard and Mariana Alfaro]
• The committee has yet to issue subpoenas to sitting members of Congress, although that option is not off-limits, and the request to Scott is for his voluntary cooperation with the committee. In a statement declining to cooperate, Scott called the committee “illegitimate” and characterized the investigation into the buildup to the January 6 riot as a distraction from Democrats’ failures. [NYT / Luke Broadwater]
• Former Army General and National Security Adviser Mike Flynn has been subpoenaed by the committee and is also refusing to comply with its requests for information, even going so far as to sue to halt the subpoena. The panel is particularly interested in an Oval Office meeting from December 18, 2020, in which Flynn reportedly discussed imposing martial law in an effort to nullify President Joe Biden’s win. [Politico / Kyle Cheney]
• Flynn is one among several Trump allies filing suit and obstructing the proceedings of the committee; conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander, and attorney John Eastman have also filed suit. Roger Stone, a Republican political operative, complied with the committee’s request but invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in response to their questions. [Bloomberg / Joshua Green and Erik Larson]
• Lower-level participants who were at the rally-turned-riot on January 6 have also cooperated with the committee but are filing suit to keep their phone records out of the committee’s hands. The committee had issued a subpoena to Verizon seeking their phone records, prompting the lawsuits. [CNN / Katelyn Polantz]
• Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was also called Wednesday to deliver testimony and documents regarding his conversations with former President Donald Trump on January 6. He is the second member of Congress, after Perry, to be asked for information about his role in the attacks. [Washington Post / Felicia Sonmez and Eugene Scott]

TPLF retreats to “give peace a chance”

• The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, has announced a withdrawal from the Amhara and Afar regions of Ethiopia, a possible indication that it is open to a cessation of hostilities with the federal government. The civil war in Ethiopia has been going on for a year and has allegedly enabled serious human rights abuses on all sides of the conflict. [Al Jazeera]
• Tsadkan Gebretensae of the TPLF says that “the bulk of our forces are inside Tigray” and that the decision to retreat was made in order to “give peace a chance.” Tsadkan, however, said that the government’s use of combat drones was “a factor” in the withdrawal. [BBC Newshour]
• But the federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claims that, rather than a de-escalation, Tigrayan forces have been defeated. Ethiopia has acquired from Turkey, the UAE, and Iran UAV technology which has shown to be a critical weapon against the TPLF. [NYT / Declan Walsh]
• The 13-month conflict has killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands into food insecurity; however, the latest development brings with it the possibility of an end to the hostilities. To that end, Debretsion Gebremichael, head of the TPLF, has called for an arms embargo on Ethiopia and its ally Eritrea, as well as a no-fly zone over Tigray and for the UN to verify that outside forces have left Tigray — all of which Abiy’s government will likely oppose. [Reuters]

 We write for the people

Around 8,000 federal inmates on home confinement due to Covid-19 can stay out of prison even after the crisis is over, the DOJ ruled Tuesday. [Washington Post / David Nakamura]

• The FDA has authorized Pfizer’s paxlovin pill for treatment against Covid-19; it’s the first oral, at-home treatment to be authorized by the agency. [WSJ / Jared S. Hopkins and Joseph Walker]
• New Delhi has banned Christmas and New Year’s celebrations due to rising Covid cases. [Hindustan Times / Kunal Gaurav]
• Libya’s parliament says it’s impossible to hold scheduled presidential elections on Friday, citing disagreements over candidates’ eligibility and election law. [NYT / Mona El-Naggar and Vivian Yee]

“We are not telling people to hide, or hunker down, or surrender to this situation. We’re telling people to be smart.”

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio on the spike of new Covid-19 infections in New York City. De Blasio is resisting major restrictions, saying that the surge will be "brief and intense."

Sean Illing talks with political commentator and author David French about modern conservatism and masculinity. [Spotify]

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