Washington (AFP) - Lawmakers investigating former president Donald Trump's involvement in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol returned to the spotlight Thursday with the final public hearing of their sprawling probe before crucial midterm elections.
The House of Representatives panel has already unveiled reams of evidence on the former president's involvement in a labyrinthine series of connected schemes to overturn the 2020 election.
In what could be its last public pitch before it issues a report on its findings, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans had promised fresh damning evidence on the insurrection.
A select committee aide said on the eve of the panel's appearance that it would "bring a particular focus on the former president's state of mind and his involvement in these events as they unfolded."
The committee is also expected to press its position that Trump -- who continues to be a wellspring of disinformation about the 2020 presidential election -- represents what Democratic member Jamie Raskin called a "clear and present" threat to democracy.
Blockbuster witness testimony across eight hearings in the summer provided stunning examples of Trump and his allies pressuring election officials and trying to get lawfully-cast votes nullified in swing states, and of Trump's inertia amid the mob uprising on January 6, 2021.
The aide said that while each previous hearing had dug into separate aspects of the plan to overturn the election and block the transfer of power, Thursday's session would tell the broad story of "Trump's centrality to the scheme from the time prior to the election."
Panel member Adam Schiff, the chairman of the powerful House intelligence committee, had told CNN to expect it to be "potentially more sweeping" than previous hearings.
'Right to the violence'
The panel plans to release its final report by the end of the year, but after the November 8 elections that decide which party controls Congress. A preliminary report may come out beforehand.
It will be the first hearing without live witnesses -- instead featuring new video evidence, including footage from a Danish film crew shot for a documentary about longtime Trump ally Roger Stone.
In one clip from the day before the 2020 election, the notorious self-styled "dirty trickster" is seen telling the filmmakers he has no interest in waiting to contest the vote tally.
"Let's get right to the violence," says the 70-year-old Republican operative.
Stone, who has not been charged in connection with the riot, has challenged the authenticity of the clips.
Committee aides said there would also be new video footage showing "efforts to respond in real time to the violence...as that violence was unfolding."
The panel also plans to unveil evidence developed from "hundreds of thousands" of pages of documents surrendered by the Secret Service, the aides said, as lawmakers seek to understand why certain agents' text messages from the eve of the insurrection and the day itself went missing.
The records are expected to confirm evidence from earlier hearings that Trump riled up his supporters despite being repeatedly warned of mounting violence on January 6.
Criminal referrals?
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June that Trump was briefed that some of his supporters had turned up armed, and demanded they be permitted into his rally anyway.
Secret Service emails obtained by the committee reportedly confirm Cassidy's evidence that Trump wanted to lead the mob at the Capitol -- a move that would have escalated a riot into an attack by one branch of the government on another, potentially upending the republic.
Trump, who urged his supporters in a fiery speech near the White House to "fight like hell," was impeached for inciting the mob to storm Congress to halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden.
The defeated president's election fraud falsehoods inspired a welter of restrictive voting laws in conservative states, and he has endorsed a crop of Republican candidates running to oversee future elections who have tried to undermine faith in the last one.
Individual panelists have publicly suggested Attorney General Merrick Garland should charge Trump over the Capitol attack, although the committee has not announced a formal decision on whether it will make criminal referrals.
It is looking increasingly unlikely that members will subpoena Trump and his vice president Mike Pence, who was threatened by the president's supporters during the insurrection.
