Doug Mastriano’s fight with the Jan. 6 committee might help his campaign for governor

State Sen. Doug Mastriano’s looming legal brawl with the congressional committee investigating the deadly U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, has a significant potential political benefit.

His lawyer says that is not by design.

Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, refused to answer the committee’s questions Tuesday. Attorney Timothy Parlatore said Thursday he will file suit next week and predicts that process could push any Mastriano testimony until after November’s election.

“There’s no aspect of this that says I’m just trying to run out the clock so he doesn’t have to answer any questions before the election,” Parlatore said.

Still, Mastriano had expressed concerns that the committee has selectively released video clips of testimony in seven public hearings and on social media. He saw the potential for clips of his testimony being weaponized in his contest with the Democratic nominee, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

We’ve already seen that. Shapiro, with a political war chest that was 30 times larger than Mastriano’s bank account as of the end of June, has used the Republican’s own words and video to cast him in television ads as too extreme on abortion access, gay marriage, climate change, and election integrity.

Parlatore wanted to record the session so he could release the full context if edited clips were made public. The committee rejected that, as it has other such requests.

Shapiro used Mastriano’s curtailed committee visit in a fund-raising pitch this week, asking, “What is he afraid of?”

Mastriano on Wednesday told the fawning hosts from a midstate conservative radio station, without offering evidence, that Shapiro is “collaborating” with the committee. He also complained about Shapiro using his words in ads.

“They don’t want transparency,” Mastriano said of the committee. “I just don’t trust them. You shouldn’t trust the government, anyway.”

The committee has questions for Mastriano about his attendance at the Jan. 6 rally for former President Donald Trump in Washington that devolved into the Capitol insurrection, using campaign funds to bus supporters with him, his participation in an effort to create an alternate slate of electors after the 2020 election, and his communications with Trump about the election.

Parlatore said his legal challenge will focus on the narrow legal question of whether the committee can question a witness in a private session because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did not appoint any members to the panel.

McCarthy balked last year at naming any Republicans to the panel after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked two members of Congress he had selected. The Select Committee does have two Republican members, picked by Pelosi.

Mastriano has set Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a conservative standard to beat in how to run a state.

Now DeSantis, a potential 2024 rival if Trump seeks the White House again, is coming to Pennsylvania next week to rally for Mastriano.

Pittsburgh will be a Friday, Aug. 19, stop on a four-state tour for DeSantis, as he continues to build his national brand stumping for like-minded culture-war Republicans in Arizona, New Mexico, and Ohio.

The “Unite and Win” tour is being funded by Turning Points Action, a conservative nonprofit founded by Charlie Kirk, who, in a statement, called Mastriano “a true champion of the grassroots in Pennsylvania.”

Mastriano has an appreciative if competitive nod to DeSantis built into his standard campaign pitch.

He told a state Republican Party meeting last month, “This state, under Gov. Mastriano, is going to turn red and we’re going to make Florida look like amateur hour, I’m here to tell you.”

At an Erie County Republican event in June, Mastriano said DeSantis “is doing a fantastic job, but with Pennsylvania and Doug Mastriano as governor it’s going to be amateur hour down there.”

Mastriano, at an event in April where QAnon and other conspiracy theories were pushed, vowed a resurgence for Pennsylvania. “You think Florida looks good?” he said. “That’s amateur hour after this.”

Trump endorsed Mastriano just before the May primary and DeSantis for Florida governor in 2018.

Trump defeated DeSantis 69-24 in a straw poll for the top pick for president in 2024 at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend.

Mastriano is counting on support from both. He told a conservative radio show host in Philadelphia earlier this month that he expects Trump to “do a couple of rallies in Pennsylvania” for his campaign before the November election.

Clout has to confess: We were pretty excited by the prospect of DeSantis appearing at the original venue for the Pittsburgh event — the David Lawrence Convention Center. That is also the location for the annual meeting of progressives known as Netroots Nation.

We’re sure the conversations in passing between dedicated members of the far right and far left would have been stimulating. Alas, that cross-political pollination was not to be.

A Turning Points spokesperson said the event had so much interest they had to upgrade the venue. A convention center spokesperson said Turning Points inquired about renting the space but never booked and the facility is at capacity that day.

Netroots Nation executive director Eric Thut said his group has a noncompete clause in its contract that would have barred a conservative political function from happening at the same time, though he suspected the convention center has space to hold both events.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.