The January 6 Committee was supposed to expose the truth about what happened at the Capitol.
Instead, they exposed something far worse about themselves.
And Liz Cheney was fuming after this damning fact about the January 6 witch hunt was exposed.
Liz Cheney's committee spent twice what they claimed on Trump witch hunt
For years, RINO Liz Cheney and the Democrat-controlled January 6 Committee lectured Americans about "accountability" and "transparency" while investigating Donald Trump.
They held prime-time hearings that CNN and MSNBC breathlessly covered as the most important political event since Watergate.
They issued subpoenas, made criminal referrals, and positioned themselves as defenders of democracy.
But now we know what they were really doing behind closed doors – and it's exactly what conservatives suspected all along.
A bombshell investigation by The Center Square just exposed that Cheney's committee didn't just waste taxpayer money.
They burned through almost twice as much as they publicly claimed while hiring Hollywood producers to turn their hearings into prime-time television spectacles.
The Washington Post reported the panel had a projected budget of $9.3 million in September 2022.¹
According to a review of U.S. House disbursements, the select committee actually spent $17.4 million.²
That's right – they lied about their spending by nearly $8 million.
U.S. Representative Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican investigating the committee's work, didn't mince words when told about the final costs.
"They wasted it, wasted it," Nehls said before calling out two of the panel's members. "That was a sham committee. (Liz) Cheney. (Adam) Kinzinger. It was a joke."³
TV producers and documentary filmmakers turned hearings into partisan theater
Here's where it gets really disgusting.
Cheney and committee chairman Bennie Thompson didn't hire more investigators or legal experts to get to the truth.
Instead, they brought in television producers from ABC News and documentary filmmakers from the Oprah Winfrey Network to dramatize their case against Trump.⁴
Among the contractors were James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, who spent 17 years at the network.⁵
Melinda Arons, a longtime producer for ABC's Nightline, bragged on her LinkedIn page about being "part of the first ever team of former television journalists brought in by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol to produce the historic live hearings."⁶
Brian Sasser, an Emmy-award winning TV news producer, noted his job was to "manage constantly evolving rundown and scripts for live hearings" and "coordinate with various U.S. House staffers and Committee investigators to ensure accuracy of all scripting."⁷
Read that again – they were literally scripting the hearings like a television drama.
This wasn't about finding truth or serving justice.
It was about producing propaganda that would damage Trump politically heading into the 2024 election.
Dan Savickas, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, called the spending excessive and inappropriate.
"The median budget for a House committee is $6 million a year, so for the Jan. 6 committee to spend $17.4 million is excessive," Savickas said. "And anytime a committee is grandstanding, specifically Jan. 6, to fit a narrative instead of holding people accountable and getting the story is bad. That's why they hired documentary filmmakers."⁸
The committee also spent $2.4 million on Innovative Driven Inc., an Arlington, Virginia-based firm specializing in forensics and electronic data discovery.⁹
Another $2.7 million went to Polar Solutions Inc., a Maryland-based investigative firm.¹⁰
Meanwhile, Timothy J. Heaphy, the committee's chief investigative counsel, pulled in almost $190,000 in compensation – more than rank-and-file Members of Congress earn.¹¹
Previous committees never turned investigations into TV productions
What makes this even more outrageous is that no previous congressional investigation ever operated this way.
The Watergate Committee in 1973-74 used only congressional staff, lawyers, and investigators.
The 9/11 Commission did the same.
Every major investigation in American history focused on finding facts, not producing television spectacles.¹²
But Cheney's committee was different.
They hired freelancers with backgrounds in producing and editing graphics, video footage, and audio – all prominent features of the committee's 10 nationally televised hearings from June to December 2022.¹³
Georgetown Professor Donell Harvin, who oversaw the District of Columbia's assessment of threat intelligence, wrote in Politico that the committee devoted only 44 pages in the annexes to security and intelligence issues – roughly 5% of the 845-page report.¹⁴
Denver Riggleman, a RINO former GOP Representative with military intelligence background, noted in Esquire magazine that the team investigating law enforcement's response occupied a lower place in the panel's pecking order.
"The sensitivity of their investigation and the multiple moving parts created a politically explosive finger-pointing extravaganza," Riggleman wrote. "Several witnesses they tried to interview remained elusive, and the committee gave Blue no means to compel testimony."¹⁵
Translation: They were more interested in the TV production than investigating security failures that actually let the breach happen.
Committee chairman Bennie Thompson defended the spending when contacted by The Center Square.
"The work of the committee speaks for itself, and the chairman continues to stand by it," his communications director wrote.¹⁶
That's exactly the kind of arrogant non-answer you'd expect from people who just got caught spending $17.4 million of taxpayer money on a political hit job.
House Speaker Mike Johnson appointed a new select subcommittee in September to investigate what really happened on January 6 – including the security failures Cheney's committee largely ignored.¹⁷
The truth about January 6 deserves a real investigation, not a Hollywood production designed to destroy Donald Trump's political future.
Cheney and her Democrat allies had their chance to get answers.
Instead, they chose partisan theater over truth – and stuck taxpayers with a bill twice as large as they admitted.
¹ The Center Square, "Jan. 6 panel cost twice previous estimates, hiring TV producers to dramatize attack," November 13, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ Ibid.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ Ibid.
