The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is scheduled on Thursday to hold the first of six public hearings where it will unveil new evidence collected against Donald Trump and a range of other operatives over the course of its 10-month inquiry.
The congressional investigation into the events of January 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, has said it has evidence to suggest Trump violated the law to overturn the 2020 election results.
What are the January 6 committee hearings?
Likened to the Watergate hearings, the select committee is holding six public hearings to reveal the mountain of evidence it acquired over the course of the sprawling investigation, which interviewed more than 1,000 people and reviewed more than 125,000 documents.
The first and last hearings are due to be shown in prime time in America in a move that may cement them in popular culture as a genuine and high-profile effort to warn of a past and ongoing threat to US democracy.
When will they occur?
The hearings are expected to take place over two weeks. According to a draft schedule first obtained by the Guardian, the panel is looking to hold the first and last hearings in at 8pm ET, and the middle four hearings in the morning at 10am ET.
On 9 June, at the inaugural hearing taking place on Capitol Hill, the select committee is expected to make opening arguments, outline a roadmap for the hearings, and then immediately dive into around two hours of events leading up to the Capitol attack.
The middle four hearings – tentatively scheduled for 13, 15, 16 and 21 June – are likely to focus on themes like Trumps’ false claims of voter fraud undermining US elections, and how he tried to use fake electors to deceive Congress into returning him to office.
The panel is then likely to reserve its most explosive revelations for the final hearing in prime time, where the select committee members Adam Kinzinger and Elaine Luria are expected to run through Trump’s actions and inactions as the January 6 attack unfolded.
What is the point of the hearings and what evidence do they have?
The select committee’s ambitions for the hearings are twofold: presenting the basis for alleging Trump broke the law, and placing the Capitol attack in a broader context of efforts to overturn the election, with the ex-president’s involvement as the central thread.
Among some of the evidence that has already become public include admissions from Trump’s top former legal adviser John Eastman, who admitted in emails obtained by the panel that his plan to obstruct Biden’s certification was unlawful – but pressed ahead anyway.
The select committee has also obtained White House records that Trump attempted to hide from the inquiry, before he was overruled by the supreme court, that indicated he lied to his supporters that he would march with them to the Capitol to send them to the building.
House investigators have also obtained testimony and photo and video from inside the White House as the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, including about how he appeared to obstruct the certification through inaction by refusing to tell the rioters to leave Capitol Hill.
The panel also expects to chart the re-emergence of the “Stop the Steal” movement by the Trump activist Ali Alexander and others, and how leaders of militia groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and the First Amendment Praetorian coalesced before January 6.
How will the hearings unfold and how will its argument be presented?
The select committee is aiming to use the public hearings to tell the story of January 6 – and how the Capitol attack was the culmination of months of efforts by Trump and his allies to first reverse his election defeat, and then stop Biden becoming president at any cost.
In order to tell that story, the select committee intends to have its senior investigative counsels reveal previously secret White House records, photos and videos that will be presented, in real time, to starkly illustrate the live witness testimony.
One of the members on the select committee will lead each of the hearings, but it will be top committee counsel who are intimately familiar with the material that will primarily conduct the questioning of witnesses, to keep testimony tightly on track.
And as the panel has witnesses testify under oath, committee counsel will simultaneously flash texts and emails, as well as new photos and videos to illustrate the testimony in real time.
Where it will be shown?
The hearings will be televised. MSNBC will have an hour “pre-game” before the primetime hearings, carry the events live, and then an hour “post-game” afterwards. MSNBC’s streaming service, Peacock, will follow the same format. CNN and CBS will also carry them live.
Fox News is the only network that will not show the hearings. For the first and final hearings, Fox News’ highest-rated host Tucker Carlson will run his regular show to deliver “counter-programming” to undercut the evidence presented by the select committee.
