Members of the special committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol are hitting back at President-elect Trump after he called for their imprisonment, saying the criminal conduct surrounding the rampage was committed by Trump and his supporters, not those who probed the tragedy afterwards.

The lawmakers on the now-defunct panel, which featured members of both parties, maintain that Trump’s threat to prosecute them puts him in league with tyrants who break laws with impunity and punish anyone who seeks to hold them to account.

For that reason, they’re rejecting Trump’s threat of time behind bars.

“In America, we jail people only for having committed criminal offenses that they are found guilty of by a unanimous jury of their peers. We don’t jail people for doing their jobs and living up to their constitutional oaths of office,” Rep. Jamie Rakin (D-Md.), a member of the select committee, told The Hill in an interview.

With Trump heading back to the White House next month, his critics say the threat is also designed to scare off any future investigations into his conduct over the next four years.

“This is not just about retribution against those of us on the committee. This is about sending a message that no one better hold him to account in his second term, no one better look at what he does and do their congressional job,” Rep Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), another member of the Jan. 6 panel who also led Trump’s first impeachment, said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program.

“He is intent on trying to break down these checks and balances in our system.”

Trump’s threat, which he amplified Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, has also heightened the push for President Biden to pardon the Jan. 6 investigators preemptively,........

© The Hill