Do Tell: Jan. 6 Panel Cost Twice Previous Estimates. Hiring Producers for Dramatic Effect

The U.S. House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol cost almost twice as much as previously reported, including spending taxpayer funds for TV news producers and documentary filmmakers to create videos dramatizing its case against President Donald Trump, an investigation by The Center Square found. 

The Washington Post reported that the panel had a projected budget of $9.3 million in September 2022. According to a review of U.S. House disbursements, the select committee spent $17.4 million.

U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican who is on a new committee appointed by House Speaker Mike Johnson to investigate security failures on Jan. 6, said the original committee didn't spend taxpayer money properly after The Center Square told him about the final costs of the panel's investigation. 

"They wasted it, wasted it," he said walking into his House office Wednesday before referring to two former GOP members of the panel. "That was a sham committee. (Liz) Cheney. (Adam) Kinzinger. It was a joke." 

Dan Savickas, president of policy and government affairs at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a non-partisan nonprofit, said more than doubling of the budget was not appropriate.