Earlier this week the Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s request to stop the January 6th committee from obtaining access to White House records related to the insurrection. The National Archives has sent the material to the House and the committee is working through the records right now. They appear to have already uncovered some relevant stuff.
I hope the committee has some historians on the payroll. Historians, of course, spend a lot of time in archives. But they are also experts at taking small bits of information–handwritten notes, memos, and tweet drafts– and weaving them together into a coherent historical narrative.
One can’t help but wonder if perhaps the select congressional committee investigating the insurrectionist riots of 2020 would also do well to have a few historians on its staff. Of course I mean the select congressional committee investigating the riots in Seattle, Portland, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. Surely the committee has already uncovered some relevant stuff and can to begin to construct a coherent historical narrative.