Another Jan. 6 committee investigator scores cushy job after Republicans disband panel
Gabe Kaminsky
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A former investigator for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot committee has landed a high-profile law job, making him the latest staffer from the disbanded panel to enter or reenter a lucrative practice.
John Wood, who was the committee’s senior investigative counsel, is now a partner at the public policy and regulation group for Holland & Knight, a multinational law firm, which posted over $1.5 billion in revenue in 2022. Wood’s hire adds to a growing list of ex-staffers from the panel, which Republicans criticized as overly partisan and dissolved in January upon earning a House majority, heading to prestigious law groups that hold sway in the nation’s capital.
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“Loyalty to the D.C. establishment gets you further in Washington than merit or achievement, and John Wood is just the latest example of a partisan hack failing up,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), whom then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blocked from serving as the committee’s ranking member after then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tapped him for the role, told the Washington Examiner.
The hiring is a window into how the Jan. 6 committee, which counted Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MI) as chairman and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as vice chairwoman, has graduated various staffers to top firms. The panel’s ex-lead investigator, Tim Heaphy, as well as Soumya Dayananda, who headed its Capitol complex security investigative team, took roles earlier this year at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, a white-shoe firm that disclosed $1.38 billion in revenue in 2022.
Thompson’s panel was formed in July 2021 and later published a report in December 2022 detailing its findings on Capitol security and former President Donald Trump’s alleged role in stoking the riot. The committee made criminal referrals for Trump and his advisers, including John Eastman, a then-lawyer for the president. Republicans and conservative activists have likened the panel to a “witch hunt,” calling it an open-ended inquiry that had little precedent and was intended to unfairly smear Trump.
Wood said in a job announcement statement he is “very eager to share the decades of experience” from his time in government with his new firm clients, while “guiding them through government investigations and defending them in court, when necessary.” The former Jan. 6 committee investigator was a United States attorney in Missouri from 2007 to 2009, and held several roles in the George W. Bush administration, including as chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security.
The ex-panel staffer also unsuccessfully ran for senate in Missouri last year as an independent and was general counsel between June 2018 and September 2021 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, according to his LinkedIn profile.
As for other ex-Jan. 6 committee staffers, investigative counsel Marcus Childress took a role in November 2022 at the law and lobbying firm Jenner & Block, while Sandeep Prasanna, a Georgetown law professor who was investigative counsel for the panel, landed at the law firm Miller & Chevalier. The panel’s investigative counsel, Kevin S. Elliker, a former federal prosecutor, returned to the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, and investigative counsel Casey Lucier jumped back to McGuireWoods.
“It is deeply concerning that Hill staffers who spent the last two years spinning politically motivated narratives are now taking their taxpayer-funded experience to swanky private sector jobs,” one senior Republican congressional staffer, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, told the Washington Examiner.
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Holland & Knight declined to comment and pointed the Washington Examiner to its press release announcing Wood’s hire.
“We are beyond thrilled that John chose to join our team,” said Rich Gold, who heads Holland & Knight’s public policy and regulation group. “His inside knowledge and experience navigating sensitive matters involving the government will make him a valuable ally to many of our clients, especially those involved in national defense and security.”