As it happens, that wasn’t altogether true. GOP officials didn’t want to look back at Trump’s pardons in January 2025, but they most certainly want to look back at the insurrectionist violence from January 2021. Roll Call reported:

A select subcommittee to continue a Republican-led reinvestigation of the events around Jan. 6, 2021, has officially been given the green light. It’s been a long time coming for Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who helmed a similar subpanel under the House Administration Committee last Congress and lobbied leadership for a new venue in the 119th. Roughly eight months after Loudermilk and Speaker Mike Johnson announced their intentions to form the subcommittee — and after prolonged negotiations — he’s finally cleared to get to work.

The panel will have eight members, who’ll be chosen by the House speaker, but the partisan split will not be even: The resolution said no more than three of the eight members will be appointed “in consultation” with the Democratic minority.......

In the months that followed, Loudermilk continued to engage in half-hearted efforts — he even asked the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation into former House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney for foolish reasons that collapsed under scrutiny — but by any fair measure, the entire endeavor was a failure.

Congressional Democrats barely bothered to push back against Loudermilk’s “investigation” for the most insulting of reasons: They saw it as too boring and pitiful to warrant a full-throated response.

And now House Republican leaders have settled on a brilliant idea: Johnson wants the same congressman who failed in his previous Jan. 6 investigation to keep going with another Jan. 6 investigation in the current Congress — all while telling the public that GOP lawmakers are “looking forward” and leaving Jan. 6 in the rearview mirror.

MAGA activists who are expecting blockbuster revelations should probably start lowering their expectations now.

After launching his own Jan. 6 probe, the Georgia Republican’s first step was simple: He exonerated himself.