Anthony Zurcher, North American reporter @ awzurcheron Twitter
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Trump supporters outside the Capitol during the January 6 riots
After 11 months, nearly 100 citations and more than 1,000 interviews, the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack will be closed and will hold a series of public hearings to present its conclusions. The first is Thursday.
The Democratic-led committee wants to create a definitive account of the riot and attempts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. It could lead to prosecutions and new laws to bolster electoral security.
Democrats can also expect hearings to remind Americans of the chaotic attacks on the Capitol, carried out in favor of a Republican president, and to take that into account when voters go to the polls for the November midterm elections. .
The new details will aim to show that January 6 “was the result of a coordinated and multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 elections and stop the transfer of power” with former President Donald Trump “at the center of that effort.” said select committee aides this week.
The controversial House of Representatives long ago voted last July to create this commission, after attempts to create an independent inquiry failed, so here’s a quick update for those who may not have been following all the turns. and turns: filtered and informed. – that the efforts of the committee have taken.
Who is part of this commission?
The panel, chaired by Congresswoman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, is made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans. The latter two, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, are strongly anti-Donald Trump conservatives. They were nominated by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she rejected three congressmen suggested by her opponent, Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy.
Has there been any investigation into the attack on the Capitol?
Yes, there are. Donald Trump’s trial for removal from the Senate in February 2021 provided a minute-by-minute account of the events of January 6 to try to determine whether the former president helped incite riots. More than 861 charges have been filed against individuals involved in the attack on the Capitol, many of which have resulted in plea agreements or guilty verdicts.
Congress has also held several public hearings on the events of January 6th. This committee held one last July where they questioned law enforcement officials about their response to the attack.
The stated purpose of this committee, and of these hearings, is to provide a comprehensive account not only of the January 6 riot, but of the “coordinated, multi-step effort” to “flip” the results of the presidential election. of 2020, allegedly led by Mr. Trump and some in his circle.
What will the hearings look like?
media subtitle,
Widow of the fallen officer: “January 6 was the worst day of his life”
Procedures are expected to be well-written, in an attempt to avoid the style of traditional committee hearings that can often fall into chaos or monotony. The panel has even hired a former TV news executive to help with his efforts.
The committee will present images from January 6, interspersed with previously recorded testimonial clips, live appearances and excerpts from documents and communications, in an attempt to form a cohesive narrative.
Thursday night’s production will include testimonies and footage recorded by a British documentary filmmaker who accompanied members of the Proud Boys – a right-wing militant group whose leaders have been accused of seditious conspiracy – before and during the January 6 attack. . He will also have the first-hand testimony of one of the police officers at the U.S. Capitol that day.
Committee members will also take advantage of the evening to outline the areas to be addressed in future hearings.
“On Thursday night it’s about connecting the dots,” a select committee aide said this week. “A lot has been reported, snippets have been shared, but our goal is to link it.”
“We will bring the American people back to the reality of this violence and remind them how horrible it was,” the assistant said.
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The mutineers enter the United States Capitol on January 6
Will there be anything new?
The committee interviewed a wide range of current and former Trump administration associates, advisers, and officials, including Mr. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, son Donald Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Also questioned were members of Vice President Mike Pence’s political team, law enforcement officials, people who were part of the protests that led to the attack on the Capitol, and U.S. Republican officials.
Witnesses and documents and text messages from Trump’s circle have already been leaked to the public.
But there may be new information that can help fill in the details.
Assistants to the select committee have said they plan to present “a lot of new material”, including documents, videos and audio that they have obtained so far unpublished.
In particular, investigators have been trying to find out what the president was doing for a three-hour period that day, from the start of the attack on the Capitol to the time he recorded a video address telling the mutineers to leave. the Capitol.
White House records provide little details, but the president made several phone calls, including McCarthy House Minority Leader and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville. The committee has spoken with many people who were around the president during this time, and perhaps their hearings will reveal what they learned. He also quoted Mr. McCarthy on his conversation with the former president, but the congressman has refused to comply.
Will Americans pay attention?
This will be difficult to judge until the first batch of TV ratings come out. However, audiences will have a lot of media coverage. Three U.S. television stations – ABC, NBC and CBS – have already pledged to air at least some of Thursday’s acts. In particular, Fox News has chosen to stick with its regular programming, including Tucker Carlson’s highly acclaimed but controversial conservative news opinion program.
However, political events need a lot in order to capture the public’s attention, and these audiences are a drama with a familiar script and ending.
The challenge for the committee will be to make the events now known seem fresh. To that end, Democrats are trying to pique interest by organizing more than 90 “surveillance parties” of hearings in the U.S. In Washington, they will screen the events on a large screen outside the Capitol itself and offer free ice cream to attendees.
What will Republicans do during the hearings?
Republican officials, especially those most loyal to Trump, are planning a “counter-schedule” and a quick response to the committee’s presentations.
Members of Congress such as Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana — two of the Republicans that Ms. Pelosi has been blocked from joining the committee – appearing in media outlets such as Fox News, One America News and Newsmax, and is likely to argue that audiences are partisan in size.
Many Conservatives will argue that Democrats are focusing on the past when they should address urgent concerns such as the economy, immigration, trade, and crime.
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Some Republicans, such as Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, have tried to make the committee illegitimate.
How long will these hearings last?
Only the first three hearings have been scheduled – on Thursday night and during the day next Monday and Wednesday – but members of the committee say there will be more this month.
What happens after that?
The committee plans to prepare a report, and possibly another hearing, in September to describe its findings, as well as offer suggestions for reforms to the U.S. election process.
There is no deadline to end the committee’s work, but Democrats may lose a majority in the House in the November midterm elections and relinquish control of the House in January. Republicans are expected to close the investigation quickly.
Will there be legal consequences?
While the committee has no power to file charges, it can make recommendations and provide evidence to the U.S. Justice Department, which is conducting its own criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 bombing.
It is possible, though not true, that the committee would recommend that Trump himself be charged with some form of criminal conduct.
In addition to the lawsuits already filed against people who violated the Capitol, the Justice Department has filed charges against two Trump advisers, former White House strategist Steve Bannon and trade representative Peter Navarro, for refusing to comply. the citations of Congress.
Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and Councilman Dan Scavino were arrested on suspicion in Congress, but the Justice Department said it would not prosecute them.
The committee will finally make legislative recommendations on how to prevent another January 6 from happening, but have yet to share details on what they could be.
What about politics?
Perhaps the biggest question is not the scope of the legal consequences, but the policies. In the days following the January 6 attack, Democrats predicted – and the Conservatives feared – that the American public would hold the Republican Party accountable. Since then, however, traditional partisan divisions in the United States have resurfaced.
Democrats can expect these hearings to remind voters going to the polls in November what happened the last time Republicans took power. For now, though, Americans seem more concerned about the price of gasoline.