Lawmakers on the January 6 committee are sitting on unreleased on-the-ground footage of the Capitol riot that is expected to be released to the public during its hearings, which begin Thursday evening.
News of the unreleased footage was first reported by Good Morning America on Thursday morning, just hours before the committee’s first public hearing on Capitol Hill. The much-anticipated hearing is expected to be widely watched and covered by most major news outlets; Fox News is the only cable news network not planning to take it live. (The network will cover the proceedings on Fox Business Network and stream it online.)
According to ABC News, the footage obtained by the panel includes the moments during which a crowd of previously peaceful Trump supporters turned into a violent mob who attacked the Capitol resulting in the deaths of several members of law enforcement. And there’s a lot of it: In addition to documentary footage shot by documentary fillmmaker Nick Quested as he followed members of the Proud Boys during the attack, the committee has reportedly also obtained roughly 14,000 hours of Capitol Police bodycam video.
"I am not allowed to say what's going to happen today because everyone's just gonna have to watch for themselves. But it's gonna happen," one woman is heard in the footage shortly before the riot begins, according to ABC News.
"Something's gonna happen one way or another,” she adds.
The committee’s prime time hearings are meant as part informative briefing and part spectacle, as members are eager to remind Americans of the danger that their elected leaders were truly in as well as the consequences of American democracy not being valued by those same leaders.
The panel is also expected to reveal new insights about the actions of Donald Trump during the riot itself as well as the actions of his allies in the weeks leading up to the violence as they led a campaign of misinformation against the results of the 2020 election and schemed to overturn it.
One Capitol Police officer who responded to the scene and was attacked with pepper spray died after suffering two strokes a day later; four other officers involved in the response died from suicide in the following days and weeks. Nearly 150 other members of law enforcement were wounded in some way.
Despite the significant law enforcement casualties that occurred some Republican lawmakers have attempted to minimise the significance of the attack in the year since it occurred. One even compared some footage of rioters in the Capitol to a “normal tourist visit”.
Hundreds have been charged for their participation in the riot and the Justice Department continues to file charges and make arrests as more rioters are identified.
