#Ex-Rep. Denver Riggleman joining Jan. 6 committee as adviser

Former GOP Congressman Denver Riggleman announced late Friday he will join the House select committee examining the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol as a senior technical adviser.

Riggleman, a former Air Force officer who represented Virginia’s 5th District for a single term before losing to Republican primary challenger Bob Good last year, confirmed he would join the committee in a video posted on Twitter.

“I have to say, doing this might be one of the biggest things I’ve ever done in my life,” the 51-year-old Riggleman said. “That includes deploying almost 20 years ago, right after 9/11.”

“We can’t worry about the color of the jerseys anymore, or whether we have an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ next to our name,” Riggleman added. “It’s time for us to look in a fact-based way at what happened on Jan. 6, [and] to see if we can prevent this from ever happening again in the future.

“I’m happy to be a part of this,” Riggleman concluded. “I want to give my word to everybody that I’m going to do this in a way that is professional, that’s transparent, that’s ethical.”

A former Air Force intelligence officer, Riggleman co-founded Analyst Warehouse LLC, a consulting firm specializing in defense and national security, after leaving the military. Riggleman unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination to be governor of Virginia in 2017 before defeating Democrat Leslie Cockburn the following year in a House campaign best remembered for Cockburn accusing Riggleman of being “a devotee of Bigfoot erotica.“

In his own statement Friday, select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) revealed that longtime Department of Homeland Security official Joe Maher would also take a staff position on the panel after being recommended by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of two Republicans on the panel along with Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

“In addition to being a former House colleague, Mr. Riggleman brings a deep background in national security and intelligence matters,” Thompson said. “Mr. Maher has distinguished himself across his career as a public servant, and I’m grateful to Representative Cheney for recommending that he join our team.

“These two individuals will provide valuable insight and expertise as we piece together what happened on January 6th and in the time leading up to it,” Thompson added.

The nine-member panel held its first hearing last week. The lawmakers heard testimony from four law enforcement officers who discussed what they went through when pro-Trump rioters breached the building in an effort to halt the certification of the 2020 election results.