In advance of the publication of its findings, the House Select Committee looking into the attack on the Capitol on January 6 will have its ninth and possibly final public session on Thursday.
An assistant for the select committee predicted that “this one would appear a little bit different.”
As part of the wider campaign to reverse the 2020 election results, the blockbuster Jan. 6 hearings from this past summer each concentrated on a distinct theme. Instead, the hearing on Thursday would “take a step back” and examine the effort to overturn President Biden’s victory in a broader context.
new evidence
The session might provide fresh, never-before-heard testimony on a variety of issues pertaining to the investigation into the fatal siege. Additionally, it can refer to information the panel recently got concerning the Secret Service’s function and a review of the former president Donald Trump’s campaign of pressure against important figures.
The aides predicted that the hearing would run two and a half hours and that no live witnesses would show up.
Many of the subjects that we covered in June and July will be revisited, but with fresh data that will shed more light on their conclusions, the authors stated.
Aides declined to specify which witnesses would be featured in the hearing on Thursday, even though the panel is anticipated to bring testimony from new witnesses.
For instance, it’s not clear whether the committee would make public the evidence of Ginni Thomas, the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, who testified last month in private.
Where the panel will go
Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee’s chairman, has emphasized numerous times that the panel’s mandate is to adhere to the facts, provide suggestions to safeguard democracy, and publish a report outlining the committee’s conclusions. Before the select committee’s term expires at the end of this year, he promises, the report will be made public.
Even grassroots Democrats had doubts that the committee hearings would make a breakthrough or produce a significant amount of fresh information. But the series of public sessions over the summer, including two during prime time, produced a number of dramatic moments with largely Republican witnesses revealing new information about how then-President Trump was repeatedly advised that he lost the 2020 election and that any attempt to overturn the results or advance fraud claims was unlawful; however, he disregarded this advice and pushed to change the outcome.
Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair, has served as the hearings’ unofficial chief prosecutor. In the first hearing, held in June, she described what the panel will show: “President Trump called the mob, gathered the crowd, and stoked the fire of this attack,” the statement read.
There were some signs that Trump’s standing as the party’s leader had suffered after the hearings’ weeks in June and July. However, the early August Justice Department search of his Florida home helped to unify the majority of congressional Republicans behind his claim that the growing federal probes were politically motivated.
a new area to cover
The Jan. 6 panel teased more hearings shortly after the sequence of presentations ended in July. Members of the committee have frequently stated that there is still more information to be shared concerning their conclusions.
When asked about specific topics that might be discussed, Thompson responded to reporters last month, “It’s basically things that you haven’t heard before.”
Thompson or Cheney frequently began or concluded the preceding sessions’ remarks, and a certain committee member presided over the topic debate. This time, each panelist will have an equal voice, according to Thompson and others.
Members, though, have been less forthcoming about the topics they’ll address or potential witnesses.
The Secret Service’s involvement in the attack on January 6 was examined by the panel this summer, and fresh information on the agency’s deleted text messages pertaining to the siege period was also revealed. The panel subpoenaed the Secret Service for further data after learning that the Department of Homeland Security monitor was aware of the missing texts months earlier.
Cheney said that the panel had gotten 800,000 pages of information from the Secret Service last month at the Texas Tribune Festival.
We’ve gotten a ton of information, the woman replied.
Additionally, former vice president Mike Pence could be the subject of fresh information, according to California Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar, a panel member. The pressure Trump applied to him to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election was made clear in earlier hearings.
Although some of Pence’s closest advisers and staffers have testified in front of the panel, Pence has refrained from giving a direct testimony.
Aguilar told NPR, “We’ve received fresh evidence since our hearings that is beneficial to our inquiry and we look forward to disclosing what’s appropriate.”
The panel may schedule an additional hearing or hearings to present its conclusions because the final report is anticipated by the end of the year.
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