House Jan. 6 committee hearing

The House choose committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol will maintain the primary of not less than six public hearings in a uncommon prime-time session Thursday night to point out the American public what they’ve realized to date concerning the riot and former President Donald Trump’s function.

The committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, stated final week that lawmakers plan to make use of a (*6*)

CBS News will broadcast the hearing as a Special Report on all CBS stations beginning at 8 p.m., anchored by “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell. She will likely be joined by CBS News chief political analyst John Dickerson; chief election and marketing campaign correspondent Robert Costa; chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes; chief nationwide affairs and justice correspondent Jeff Pegues; and congressional correspondents Nikole Killion and Scott MacFarlane. 

Ahead of a gathering with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles on Thursday, Mr. Biden famous that some Americans will likely be hearing particulars of the Jan. 6 assault for the primary time. 

“And as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution,” Mr. Biden stated. “I think these guys and women broke the law. … There’s a lot of questions — who’s responsible, who’s involved. I’m not going to make a judgment on that, but I just want you to know that we’re going to probably be, a lot of Americans are going to be seeing for the first time some of the detail that occurred.”

Committee aides stated the primary hearing will likely be handled like a gap assertion, with committee members sharing their preliminary findings concerning the assault. They will even preview the subsequent hearings.

“We will be revealing new details showing that the violence on Jan. 6 was the result of a coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, and indeed that President Donald Trump was at the center of that effort,” a choose committee aide stated. “We’ll remind people of what happened on that day. We’ll bring the American people back to the reality of that violence and remind them just how horrific it was.” 

The committee plans to unveil “a whole lot of new material,” together with beforehand unseen paperwork, video and audio it has obtained. The hearing will function each in-person witnesses in addition to taped testimony from witnesses the committee interviewed in the course of the investigation. These witnesses embrace Trump White House officers, senior Trump administration officers, Trump marketing campaign officers and Trump members of the family.

The committee has interviewed greater than 1,000 people, gathered greater than 140,000 paperwork and acquired almost 500 “substantive” recommendations on its tip line. Members have spent almost a yr reviewing paperwork and hearing testimony from individuals starting from former Trump officers to Capitol police to riot defendants.   

Thursday’s hearing will likely be led by Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, committee aides stated. An aide stated that Thompson will “place Jan. 6 in a broader historical context and talk about what an aberration that day was in the history of American democracy.” Committee aides stated there doubtless will likely be opening statements by Thompson and Cheney, adopted by “substantive” multimedia shows after which stay witness testimony.  

The committee will even make legislative suggestions on methods to forestall one other assault from taking place.

The panel has additionally scheduled the subsequent 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 choose on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, confirmed to CBS News that he has accepted an invite to seem earlier than the committee subsequent week. “It will be an honor to testify before the January 6th committee,” he instructed CBS News.

Greg Jacob, who served as chief counsel to former Vice President Mike Pence, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will even seem at subsequent hearings.

Cheney, one in every of solely two Republicans on the committee, instructed “CBS Sunday Morning” she is assured what they discovered as a committee will make the American individuals get up and listen. 

“You know, we are not in a situation where former President Trump has expressed any sense of remorse about what happened,” Cheney stated. “We are in fact in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language, frankly, than the language that caused the attack. And so, people must pay attention. People must watch, and they must understand how easily our democratic system can unravel if we don’t defend it.”

The choose committee introduced Tuesday night it deliberate to name two witnesses on Thursday: Nick Quested, a filmmaker who adopted the Proud Boys on Jan. 6, and Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, the primary regulation enforcement officer injured by rioters storming the Capitol grounds. Edwards suffered a traumatic mind harm and has not been in a position to return to work for the reason that assault, based on the committee.

Quested will doubtless face questions concerning the footage he shot each on the times main as much as Jan. 6 and on the day of the assault, when he adopted a bunch of Proud Boys as they stormed the Capitol. The chief and 4 members of that far-right group are going through costs of seditious conspiracy.

James Goldston, who labored for almost twenty years at ABC News as an govt producer and ultimately president of the news division, helps the committee put collectively its presentation, which is predicted to incorporate audio and video components. 

Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin instructed CBS News’ “Red & Blue” in May that the committee divided materials up into chapters “that will allow for the unfolding of the narrative.”

The nine-person committee is comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created the committee regardless of opposition from Republicans to research the origins of the assault, which came about after then-President Trump inspired his supporters to “walk down” to the U.S. Capitol whereas the Electoral College votes have been being counted. “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he stated. In the following riot, 5 individuals died, together with a Capitol police officer. 

The Democratic-controlled House voted to question Trump one week later, however he was acquitted by the Senate. 

Several of Trump’s closest supporters have appeared earlier than the committee, together with his kids Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. But others have refused to adjust to subpoenas, together with former chief of employees Mark Meadows and former adviser Steve Bannon, who has been charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to adjust to the subpoena. 

Zak Hudak contributed to his report.