Doug Mastriano to appear for questioning by House Jan. 6 panel Tuesday, but it may be short

• Charles Thompson/PennLive
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  Thompson has covered state government for The Patriot since 1999. Prior to that, he had covered various Cumberland County municipalities and school districts. Thompson lives in Carlisle with his wife, Beth, and their two children.

Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano will dial-in Tuesday morning for a scheduled on-line deposition before the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

But he may not be staying on the line very long, his lawyer says.

Attorney Timothy Parlatore says without a last-minute agreement on Mastriano’s request to make his own recordings of the deposition – essentially on-the-record testimony about his knowledge of and participation in former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to try to cling to power despite his 2020 electoral defeat – the interview will be short-circuited.

Parlatore told PennLive Monday he will end it based on an argument that the committee, as structured without appointees named by the Republican Party, lacks standing to order a compelled deposition.

“He’s not trying to hide anything and is happy to answer the committee’s questions as long as there’s some protections to make sure that they don’t try to influence the (gubernatorial) election,” Parlatore said.

Originally, Mastriano – who has already provided the committee with documents – told the committee he would voluntarily testify. But that changed after his Republican primary win in Pennsylvania and the advent of the committee’s public hearings this summer, in which Parlatore argues he and his client have seen some witnesses testimony edited to the point where the original meaning has been lost.

Mastriano, Parlatore explained, grew worried that if the same happened to him, it could be harmful to his gubernatorial race against sitting Attorney General and Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro.

That’s when, Parlatore said, he and his client decided to ask for their own right to record. “With the upcoming general election, we need to have some protective measures in place to prevent any interference with that election from the dissemination of disinformation,” Parlatore wrote in an Aug. 5 letter to Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi.

Mastriano’s request was first reported by the Washington-based political news outlet Politico.

While others have unsuccessfully challenged subpoenas and other aspects of the panel’s work, or actually ignored them and been charged with contempt of Congress, Parlatore said he believes he and Mastriano are the first to be specifically attack the committee’s power to depose, which Parlatore has key witness protection elements – from who conducts the questioning to the release of testimony – that rest with the minority party members.

Those protections are missing in this committee, he argues, because of the fact that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s choices to serve on the panel were never accepted by Speaker Nancy J. Pelosi, which means the select committee has no “ranking minority member” designated by the House Republican Conference.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, has been designated the committee’s vice-chair, but she was seated by Pelosi.

The dispute could leave Mastriano susceptible to a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for contempt of Congress, though to date Justice has only brought such charges against two persons, former Trump political advisor Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, the onetime White House trade advisor.

Parlatore suggested Monday he believes there is ample evidence on the record of Mastriano’s willingness to cooperate.

PennLive reached out to Select Committee staff for a response to Parlatore’s argument, but received no response. Similarly, efforts to reach Mastriano’s campaign were unsuccessful.

Mastriano, a state senator from Franklin County, was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 select committee in February based on his post-election meetings with Trump at the White House, and his personal participation in the events of Jan. 6, 2021 that culminated in the attack on the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters as the final certification of Electoral College votes was in progress.

The committee cited a Nov. 28, 2020, tweet by Mastriano that said he was pushing to have the Pennsylvania Legislature undo the Wolf Administration’s certification of the presidential vote, and directly assume the appointment of electors. The resolution did not gather any cosponsors and died in committee without action on Nov. 30.

Mastriano has acknowledged participating in the march to the Capitol after Trump’s speech on Jan. 6th 2021, but he has said he never entered the building, and never participated in any criminal acts.

Mastriano has also already given what Parlatore described as a voluntary interview with the FBI last year.

Democratic nominee and sitting Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s campaign, of course, has already referenced the fact Mastriano’s ties to Trump’s efforts early and often in the general election campaign, as Exhibit A in its case that Mastriano is unfit for office.

“Each passing day is another day that Pennsylvanians learn more about Doug Mastriano’s dangerous extremism,” Shapiro’s campaign said Monday when asked for comment on the deposition. “From his pledge to ban abortion with no exceptions, to his attendance at the deadly insurrection on January 6th, to his plotting to overturn future elections, it is clear that Doug Mastriano is too extreme for Pennsylvania.”