House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been doing a lot of lying about the Jan. 6 commission, and his claim last Thursday that the FBI supposedly concluded Donald Trump had “no involvement” in the Capitol riot is just the latest installment in his trail of ignominy.

In an appearance last week on local Bakersfield station KGET, McCarthy floated the idea that both the FBI and several Senate committees had investigated Trump’s involvement with the Capitol insurrection and effectively cleared him of bearing any responsibility for what happened that day. 

In a joint statement Saturday, the chair of the Jan. 6 House select committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, and vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, blasted McCarthy’s claim as “baseless.” McCarthy, they said, made the claim based on an anonymous report that had no merit.

“When this anonymous report was first published, the Select Committee queried the Executive Branch agencies and congressional committees involved in the investigation,” said Thompson and Cheney. “We’ve received answers and briefings from the relevant entities, and it’s been made clear to us that reports of such a conclusion are baseless.”

The statement also noted that McCarthy’s remarks from the House floor on Jan. 13 about the insurrection were entirely “inconsistent” with his latest claim. 

“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” McCarthy had said on the House floor. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump.”

In other words, careful what you say, McCarthy, it might come back to bite you—especially if you end up testifying before the committee. Just a guess that harkening back to his previous comments was a little touch of Cheney since she was still in charge of caucus messaging at the time. 

McCarthy’s interview with KGET was rich with lies, half-truths, and false innuendo. Among other things, McCarthy warned that if the select committee was able to obtain the phone records of congressional members, “they can go after any Americans’ phone numbers that they want.”

Fearmongering, plain and simple. Congress has the power to police its members, and if what the committee is doing is illegal, McCarthy can file a court challenge. Instead, he and several members of the GOP caucus have threatened retaliation against companies who legally comply with a congressional subpoena.

But it’s quite a turn for McCarthy to be concerned about government surveillance of private citizens suddenly. As former Michigan congressman Justin Amash noted on Twitter, McCarthy “voted for the Patriot Act (multiple times), FISA 702 (multiple times), and every dystopian surveillance bill that has ever made it to the House floor.”

Apparently, being surveilled looks a little different when you’re a target and you’re clearly scared silly over what might be uncovered.