The select committee of the House investigating the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol will hold the first of at least six public hearings in a rare prime time session Thursday evening to show the American public what it has learned so far on the riot and the former president. The role of Donald Trump.
Committee Chair Bennie Thompson said last week that lawmakers plan to use a “combination of testimonials, exhibits, things we have through the tens of thousands of exhibits we have. […] as well as the hundreds of witnesses we gave or who we spoke to in general. “
CBS News will air the audience as a special report on all CBS stations starting at 8 p.m., presented by CBS Evening News presenter Norah O’Donnell. He will be joined by CBS News chief political analyst John Dickerson; the chief election and campaign correspondent, Robert Costa; White House Chief of Staff Nancy Cordes; Jeff Pegues, Chief Correspondent for National Affairs and Justice; and Congress correspondents Nikole Killion and Scott MacFarlane.
Committee aides said the first hearing will be treated as an initial statement, and committee members will share their initial findings on the attack. They will also preview the upcoming hearings.
“We will reveal new details that show that the January 6 violence was the result of a coordinated effort and several steps to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden and In fact, President Donald Trump was at the center of that effort, “said a select committee aide. “We will remind people of what happened that day. We will return to the American people to the reality of this violence and remind them how horrible it was.”
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will be made public with its findings starting Thursday, June 9th. J. Scott Applewhite / AP
The committee plans to release “a lot of new material,” including unseen documents, videos, and audio. The hearing will feature eyewitnesses and recorded witnesses from the witnesses the committee interviewed during the investigation. These testimonies include Trump White House officials, senior Trump administration officials, Trump campaign officials, and members of the Trump family.
The committee interviewed more than 1,000 people, gathered more than 140,000 documents, and received nearly 500 “substantive” tips on its line of suggestions. Members have spent nearly a year reviewing documents and hearing testimonies from people ranging from former Trump officials to Capitol police and accused of rioting.
Thursday’s hearing will be led by Thompson and Vice President Liz Cheney, committee aides said. An aide said Thompson “will place January 6 in a broader historical context and talk about what an aberration that day was in the history of American democracy.” Committee aides said there will likely be opening statements by Thompson and Cheney, followed by “substantive” multimedia presentations and then live testimony.
The committee will also make legislative recommendations on how to prevent another attack.
The committee has also scheduled the next two public hearings for Monday, June 13 at 10 a.m. ET and Wednesday, June 15 at 10 a.m. ET.
J. Michael Luttig, a former U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals judge, confirmed to CBS News that he has accepted an invitation to appear before the committee next week. “It will be an honor to testify before the Jan. 6 committee,” he told CBS News.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will also appear at an upcoming hearing.
Cheney, one of only two Republicans on the committee, told CBS Sunday Morning that he is confident that what they found as a committee will cause the American people to wake up and pay attention.
“You know, we’re not in a situation where former President Trump has expressed any remorse for what happened,” Cheney said. “In fact, we are in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language, frankly, than the one that provoked the attack. And therefore people have to pay attention. People have to be vigilant and have to understand how easily our democratic system can get rid of it if we don’t defend it. “
The select committee announced Tuesday evening that it planned to call two witnesses on Thursday: Nick Quested, a filmmaker who followed the Proud Boys on January 6, and Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards, the first police officer injured in the riots. they stormed the grounds of the Capitol. Edwards suffered a traumatic brain injury and has not been able to return to work since the attack, according to the committee.
Quested is likely to face questions about the footage he filmed both in the days leading up to January 6 and the day of the attack, when he followed a group of Proud Boys as they stormed the Capitol. The leader and four members of this far-right group face charges of seditious conspiracy.
James Goldston, who worked for nearly two decades at ABC News as executive producer and eventually chairman of the news division, is helping the committee prepare its presentation, which is expected to include audio and video features. .
Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin told CBS News’ “Red & Blue” in May that the committee divided the material into chapters “that will allow the development of the narrative.”
The nine-person committee consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set up the committee despite opposition from Republicans to investigate the origins of the attack, which took place after then-President Trump encouraged his supporters to “go down” to the Capitol. of the United States while counting the votes of the Electoral College. “If you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore,” he said. In the ensuing riot, five people were killed, including a Capitol police officer.
The Democratic-controlled House voted to oust Trump a week later, but was acquitted by the Senate.
Several of Trump’s closest supporters have appeared before the committee, including his sons Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. But others have refused to comply with the summons, such as former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former adviser Steve Bannon, who has been accused of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with the summons.
Robert Costa and Zak Hudak contributed to his report.