The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Monday suddenly scheduled a hearing for Tuesday afternoon to hear what the panel called “recently obtained evidence” and take eyewitness testimony, a surprise move which provoked a wave of speculation about a potential potential. explosive revelation.
The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Capitol Hill, according to a press release issued by the committee, in which it did not provide further details about the session. The announcement, and its sudden, secretive nature, gave way to a day of speculation about what the panel might have learned, or the cooperation of who might have achieved, to justify modifying a carefully scheduled hearing schedule. choreographed for a week when members had left Washington to spend time in their districts across the country.
“BETTER TO BE A GREAT OFFER,” John W. Dean, the White House attorney under President Richard M. Nixon known for his role in the Watergate scandal, wrote on Twitter. “There was only one surprise witness during the Senate Watergate Committee hearings. On July 16, 1973, an unannounced witness appeared: Alex Butterfield, who testified to Nixon’s secret recording system, which changed history forever. !
The Jan. 6 panel has held a series of hearings this month outlining the findings of its nearly a-year investigation, but no additional sessions were planned until July.
However, its investigators have continued to collect evidence and record interviews with witnesses even though the committee presents its findings. At the end of each hearing, lawmakers have called for more people to come forward and offer public testimony. And in recent days, the committee has indicated that it has gathered crucial new information that needs to be further investigated.
One of the key witnesses the committee has not yet heard publicly is Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mark Meadows, the last White House chief of staff to President Donald J. Trump.
Mrs. Hutchinson has provided the panel with some of his most important revelations to date, all made during a closed-door video-recorded testimony, parts of which have been shown or alluded to in previous hearings. He is said to have been present when Mr. Meadows described having heard Mr. Trump reacted with approval to the chants of his supporters to hang Vice President Mike Pence. And he testified that half a dozen Republican lawmakers who led efforts in Congress to overturn the election called for pardons after the riots.
In recent days, the committee has also obtained and has been examining hours of footage shot by a documentary filmmaker who was integrated with Mr. Trump, his family and members of his inner circle immediately before, during and after the attack.
But, pressured on the matter on Monday, the aides refused to disclose what additional evidence they planned to present on Tuesday or who would testify.
The group has not yet heard directly from Mr. Trump or Mr. Pence, though lawmakers have left open the possibility of calling either. The committee has also asked Virginia Thomas, the wife of Judge Clarence Thomas, to testify in private next month about her role in pushing for the cancellation of the 2020 election.
Last week, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and committee vice president publicly asked for a statement from Pat A. Cipollone, the former White House attorney who rejected some of the most extreme plans to cancel the election. .
Some of the most serious testimony the panel has received to date comes from people who worked directly for Trump, including officials from his presidential campaign, his legal team, and the Justice Department.
The committee asked Ms. Hutchinson on the positive reaction of Mr. Trump to the screams of the mutineers to execute Mr. Pence and he confirmed it, according to people known to the panel work.
Key revelations from the January 6 hearings
Ms. Cheney has said the committee received testimony that when Mr. Trump learned of the mob’s threats to hang Mr. Pence said, “Maybe our fans have the right idea,” and added that Mr. Pence “deserves it.”
The testimony of Mrs. Hutchinson also suggested that at least a handful of Republican lawmakers were concerned about criminal responsibility after participating in the effort to invalidate election results. In an interview recorded by the panel at her last public hearing, Ms. Hutchinson testified that representatives Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. all asked for pardons after the January 6 aggression.
Four of those members have denied having done so, with some questioning Ms. Hutchinson by name. Ms Greene posted a clip of Mrs Hutchinson on Twitter and added: “Saying ‘I’ve heard’ means you don’t know. Spreading gossip and lies is exactly what the January 6 Witch Hunt Committee is all about.” . Mr. Biggs said in the same way that Ms. Hutchinson had been “wrong” and that his testimony was edited “deceptively.”
Mr. Brooks, however, confirmed the search for a broad pardon for more than 100 Republicans.
Mrs. Hutchinson also testified that in a discussion, Mr. Perry, who now heads the Freedom House Caucus on the right, endorsed the idea of encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol, and that no one in the convocation opposed the proposal. He made it clear that members of Congress were “inclined to follow the instructions of the White House” to lead a crowd to the Capitol.
So far, Ms. Hutchinson has cooperated with the committee in three separate in-camera interviews after receiving a subpoena.
The committee had been planning at least two more hearings for July, according to its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat. These sessions were expected to detail how a mob of violent extremists attacked the Capitol and how Mr. Trump did nothing to cancel the violence for more than three hours.
Previous hearings have focused on the pressure campaigns that Mr. Trump launched against the Justice Department, state officials and his own vice president as he tried to cling to power.