Who is on the January 6 Committee? The Lawmakers Appointed to Probe Capitol Riot

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday revealed her eight appointees—seven Democrats and one Republican—to the House select committee that will investigate the deadly January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Here are the members of the January 6 commission in order of seniority, as announced by Pelosi:

Bennie Thompson (D-MS)

Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security, will serve as chair of the January 6 committee. In May, Thompson negotiated a bill with Republican John Katko (R-NY) for a bipartisan and independent commission to investigate the Capitol riot. The bill ended up being blocked by Senate Republicans.

Following his appointment, Thompson tweeted: "It is clear that #January6th was not simply an attack on a building, but on our very democracy: an attack on the peaceful transfer of power. It is imperative that we find the truth of that day and ensure that such an assault on our Capitol and Democracy cannot again happen."

In February, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Thompson accusing former President Donald Trump of inciting the Capitol attack. Also named as defendants are Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as well as far-right groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

A member of the House since 1993, Thompson is the lone Democrat in Mississippi's congressional delegation and the longest-serving African-American elected official in the state.

Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)

Rep. Zoe Lofgren is the chairwoman of the Committee on House Administration, which oversees House affairs, including security at the Capitol. Since the violent breach of the Capitol grounds on January 6, the committee has worked alongside Capitol Police to identify and address response-related issues.

The congresswoman said she looked forward to working with her colleagues to "uncover the truth, protect our democracy, and ensure that such an attack will never happen again."

"The Committee on House Administration has held five oversight hearings on issues in its jurisdiction related to January 6 which revealed detailed and disturbing problems," Lofgren said in a statement. "We will continue to pursue remedial action."

"The fact that there were deficiencies in the management of the Capitol Police did not cause the insurrection," she continued. "The Select Committee will investigate the causes and circumstances leading up to the events that day."

Lofgren—a former immigration attorney and law professor—has worked on the impeachments of three presidents, first as a congressional staffer during President Richard Nixon's 1974 trial. Since joining Congress in 1995, she was a member of the House Judiciary Committee for President Bill Clinton's 1998 impeachment, and an impeachment manager for Trump's 2020 proceedings.

Adam Schiff (D-CA)

A prominent Trump critic, Rep. Adam Schiff chairs the House Intelligence Committee and was the lead manager for Democrats during the former president's first impeachment trial, which examined his alleged efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials in uncovering damaging information about then-former Vice President Joe Biden.

Schiff supported Trump's impeachment following the Capitol insurrection, and has long blamed him for the attack. The congressman stated Trump deliberately incited a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol through baseless election fraud claims.

"Trump lost. Refused to accept the result. Spread lies. And then incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol," he tweeted in February. He later called Trump "knowing, willful and remorseless."

Beyond his focus on national security and foreign policy, Schiff's platform also involves human rights, press freedom and climate change.

Pete Aguilar (D-CA)

The third California Democrat on the committee, Rep. Pete Aguilar said in a statement he was "honored" to have been selected to serve on the January 6 committee.

"I was on the House floor that day when a violent mob, intent on preventing the certification of a free and fair election, broke into the Capitol," said Aguilar.

"To be clear, the attack on January 6th was an attempt to prevent the peaceful transition of power that is the cornerstone of our democracy," he continued. "While this attempt ultimately failed, we cannot and should not move on until we have completed a thorough investigation to understand what happened that day and in the days leading up to it."

In March, Aguilar introduced a trio of bills seeking to curb domestic extremism and terrorist attacks following the insurrection. He also called on any committee investigating the Capitol attack to be "representative of the people" by including women and people of color.

Aguilar is vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus and a member of the House Administration Committee.

Liz Cheney (R-WY)

Embattled Congresswoman Liz Cheney is the sole Republican committee member selected by Pelosi. Cheney's criticism of Trump following the Capitol attack has left her ostracized within her own party. In May, she was ousted from her role as the House Republican Party's conference chair, effectively ending her tenure as the third-ranking House GOP leader.

Cheney's new committee role risks further retribution from her GOP colleagues. After Pelosi's announcement, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was reported to have threatened to strip Republicans of their committee assignments if they joined the January 6 commission upon the House Speaker's appointment.

In a statement, Cheney said Congress is "obligated to conduct a full investigation" into the attack.

"What happened on January 6th can never happen again," she said in a statement. "Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious, and non-partisan manner."

Cheney serves on the House Armed Services Committee. The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, she previously worked as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department during George W. Bush's administration.

Stephanie Murphy (D-FL)

Murphy—the daughter of Vietnamese refugees and the first Vietnamese-American woman elected to Congress—reflected on her family fleeing communist Vietnam in remarks at a Thursday press conference with her fellow January 6 committee members.

"I fled a country where political violence was how political transitions were made," she said. "And I have never lived a day in this country where I haven't been proud to live in a democracy, to have the freedoms that this country offers, but I also understand I feel responsibility to protect our democracy."

"And so it broke my heart to be in this building on January 6 and see the kind of political violence that occurred in the country I fled, and in countries that I worked on when I was at the Department of Defense, happening here in our country."

Murphy said she looked forward to probing into the events at the Capitol on January 6, addressing domestic terrorism and figuring out how to "secure the citadel of democracy here at this Capitol."

Murphy has been in Congress since 2017 and serves on the Armed Services Committee. Prior to her congressional tenure, she worked as a national security specialist at the Defense Department.

Jamie Raskin (D-MD)

Raskin serves as vice chair of the House Administration Committee and is a member of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees. As the lead House impeachment manager for Trump's second impeachment trial, Raskin supported the disgraced then-president's removal from office following the Capitol riot.

In a statement, he called his appointment to the January 6 committee a "great honor."

"As Chair of the Oversight Committee's Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, I've helped lead the Oversight Committee's painstaking investigation into violent white supremacy over the last two years," he said in a statement. "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has declared domestic violent extremism the number one security threat in the country."

"We saw that threat explode right in front of our eyes at the Capitol on January 6."

Prior to joining Congress, Raskin worked as a professor of constitutional law at American University Washington College of Law for over 25 years.

Elaine Luria (D-VA)

A veteran Navy commander, Luria is the vice-chair of the Armed services Committee, as well as a member of the Homeland Security and Veterans' Affairs committees.

"I stand here today as someone who served two decades in uniform," Luria said during the Thursday press conference. "The first time that I took the oath to protect and defend our Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, I was 17 years old entering the Naval Academy."

"And I never thought, fast forwarding to today, I would be standing here serving in this capacity, looking into why we had a violent mob attack on our Capitol and the process of a smooth transition of government."

Luria added she hoped the committee "can come together" to accomplish its mission and "leave behind any of that veil of partisanship at the door."

Since joining Congress in 2019, Luria has been an advocate for military service members and veterans. She supported impeaching Trump for both of his trials.