The House pick committee on January 6 holds its first listening to on Thursday, in high time at eight p.m. EST, promising to weave collectively a story from the findings of its year-lengthy probe with “formerly unseen material” approximately the assault at the Capitol.
Some committee individuals have teased that there can be “bombshells” and that the general public can be amazed via way of means of what’s revealed.
Pressed approximately the danger of overhyping the news, for the reason that many info have already leaked out, committee member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., advised newshounds this week: “We`re now no longer withinside the enterprise of entertainment. We’re withinside the enterprise of looking to speak to the American human beings the gravity and the immensity of those events.”
The majority-Democrat committee, charged with investigating the rebel that pro-Trump extremists was hoping might assist overturn the 2020 election, has interviewed extra than 1,000 witnesses, consisting of individuals of former President Donald Trump’s own circle of relatives and management, in addition to cops and aides who had been below siege for hours on Jan. 6, 2021.
Thursday’s listening to, the primary of six, will characteristic stay witnesses — Caroline Edwards, a U.S. Capitol police officer and the primary regulation enforcement member injured via way of means of rioters at the West Front plaza, and Nick Quested, a filmmaker who followed people who breached the constructing and captured the chaotic scene. Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wy., will make starting statements and the panel may also display videotaped depositions from senior Trump White House, campaign, and management officials.
The committee is predicted to difficulty a voluminous document with pointers in September. Some contributors have already indicated they again adjustments to the Electoral Count Act, the regulation governing the system for Congress to depend and certify electoral votes. While the committee has the strength to make legislative pointers, it can not carry any crook expenses and might handiest make a crook referral to the Justice Department.
Here are key regions the committee will speak throughout the hearings.
What have been President Trump, his friends, staff, and own circle of relatives contributors doing?
Cheney has time and again raised questions on the shortage of statistics approximately what President Trump become doing on the White House while violent protestors breached the Capitol.
The rioters threatened lawmakers, and the vice president, chanting to “hold Mike Pence,” and there has been a time period and not using a reaction from Trump. Hours in advance he instructed his supporters at the Ellipse outdoor the White House “we combat like hell. And in case you don`t combat like hell, you are now no longer going to have a rustic anymore.” Trump cautioned he might stroll together along with his supporters to the Capitol however rather again to the White House.
Several committee contributors factor to 187 mins that afternoon in which it is uncertain what the president become doing as a key awareness in their investigation.
They have labored to fill withinside the hole via interviews with a couple of witnesses, along with Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. They’ve additionally subpoenaed documents, along with the president’s every day agenda and contact log.
According to select committee aides, Thursday`s hearing will feature testimony from those inside the White House and the Trump campaign, including family members. These will be video clips of taped depositions.
What is the “fake electors” scheme?
The committee issued at least 20 publicly announced subpoenas tied to a wide-ranging scheme across several states to submit a slate of fake electors to Congress as a way of altering the results of the 2020 presidential election in the hopes of keeping Trump office.
The subpoenas included Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, in addition to two GOP political candidates in swing states. Committee demands for testimony and records were also issued to the Republican nominee to be Pennsylvania’s next governor, Doug Mastriano, and the GOP candidate Mark Finchem, who is running to be the next secretary of state in Arizona.
In some cases, state officials helped organized events where members of Trump’s legal team and others shared false claims of voter fraud. The effort continued up to the day of the attack. For example, Finchem said he had to deliver “evidence” to then-Vice President Mike Pence to postpone the certification of the election results.
The committee also obtained details that then-Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani pressured state lawmakers to reject election results in Michigan. Giuliani also has testified before the committee.
The efforts have also drawn the attention of prosecutors in multiple states.
Where did the money come from and where did it go?
What the committee has learned about the financial story behind the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has remained one of the most closely held parts of the probe. However, it has shared some clues through publicly announced subpoenas and court filings.
For example, a Republican National Committee lawsuit revealed the panel was looking into a push by former President Donald Trump for donations after he lost his 2020 bid for reelection.
The committee`s Feb. 23 subpoena of RNC vendor Salesforce said the company hosted Trump emails asking for new donations that included false claims of election fraud.
It was part of a central question the panel hoped to answer: Did Trump find new ways after his loss to keep the money coming by shifting to a “Stop the Steal” effort?
The panel has also issued subpoenas for banking records and shared in letters to certain subpoenaed witnesses that it’s trying to track down appearance fees for the Jan. 6 rally — that is, whether any of the speakers collected payment that day.
A combination of dark-money groups, nonprofits and super PACs funded the rally before the attack, but the panel has also probed whether any of that money help aid the insurrection.
Who were the armed and violent groups storming into the Capitol?
The committee has also taken strong interest in the extreme right-wing groups that breached the Capitol. Among their publicly announced subpoenas, the panel last year demanded testimony and documents from the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
It also demanded testimony for Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who on Jan. 6 was chairman of the Proud Boys; Elmer Stewart Rhodes, president of the Oath Keepers; and Robert Patrick Lewis, chairman of 1st Amendment Praetorian, a less well-known group that provided security at multiple rallies leading up to Jan. 6.
The groups were part of a larger organized network that helped launch the attack on the Capitol, the committee’s members have said.
The interest in the groups and their leaders has also escalated in recent months in the criminal probe led by the Justice Department. Several members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have also been charged with seditious conspiracy, and some have led to convictions with guilty pleas.
Who cooperated with the committee — and who didn’t?
Select committee aides emphasize the “vast majority” of witnesses have cooperated and helped the committee amass “a mountain of new evidence.”
But some senior former officials in the Trump administration and House of Representatives refused to appear or provide documents. Former advisor Steve Bannon refused to cooperate and was ultimately charged with contempt of Congress by the Justice Department last November. His trial is slated for this summer. Last week Peter Navarro, former trade adviser, faced a similar charge.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to start with cooperated and grew to become over a trove of emails and textual content messages, however then reversed direction and refused to a closed-door interview and to show over final substances the panel requested. Meadows sued the panel, and his legal professional raised issues approximately government privilege, despite the fact that the Biden White House has waived any claims to that protection.
Former senior aide Dan Scavino additionally defied a subpoena. The House referred the refusals from each him and Meadows to the Justice Department, which knowledgeable the committee closing week they might now no longer pursue contempt fees towards them — information the panel criticized, arguing that they’d significant facts to offer withinside the investigation.
In an extraordinary move, 5 sitting House Republicans have been additionally subpoenaed for testimony and documents. Most notably, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who publicly mentioned his telecellsmartphone verbal exchange with Trump at the day of the attack, became requested to seem voluntarily after which given a subpoena. McCarthy, in conjunction with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz, have all driven again towards the subpoenas and worrying information about proof and questions they might face — making all of it however sure they may now no longer take part in any fashion. It`s uncertain whether or not the panel might vote to preserve any in crook contempt, and if it did that dispute may want to grow to be in court.
