The panel showed previously unseen video testimonies of Trump’s inner circle, including of former Attorney General Bill Barr and daughter and former adviser Ivanka Trump.
While the committee cannot bring legal charges against Trump, its central mission has been to uncover the full scope of Trump’s unprecedented attempt to stop the transfer of power.
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Here are key lines from the Jan. 6 committee's prime-time hearing
From CNN staff
US Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, gives her opening remarks on Thursday night.
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol laid out some of its preliminary findings in its first prime-time hearing on Thursday.
Here are some key lines from the panel’s presentation and testimony from witnesses:
Thompson: “Our democracy remains in danger”
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, used part of his opening statement to set the tone of why Americans should be interested in the committee’s findings. Thompson said the insurrection put democracy at risk — and it didn’t stop on Jan. 6, 2021. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over,” Thompson said.
Cheney: “Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack”
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, laid the blame for the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol squarely on former President Donald Trump. “On this point, there is no room for debate,” she said during her opening statement. Later, she said Trump had a “sophisticated seven-part plan” to overturn the election over the course of several months.
Thompson: “It’s hard to watch”
Thompson gave a warning before the committee played never-before-seen footage from the insurrection. The video showed the violent scenes of that day — rioters breaking windows and pushing their way through officers and into the Capitol.
Officer: “Literal blood, sweat and tears were shed that day defending the building”
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured after she was part of an altercation involving members of the Proud Boys while defending the US Capitol during the riot, said during her testimony that the day of the insurrection was the first time her patriotism had been questioned. She recalled what it was like to deal with the aftermath of the attack.
Documentarian: “For anyone who didn’t understand how violent that event was — I saw it, I documented it, and I experienced it”
Documentarian Nick Quested, a witness who testified during tonight’s hearing, described the violence he saw during the attack on the Capitol. “I documented the crowd turn from protesters to rioters to insurrectionists. I was surprised at the size of the group, the anger and the profanity,” he told the committee. “I heard incredibly aggressive chanting and I subsequently shared that footage with the authorities,” he continued. The documentarian was embedded with the Proud Boys for a significant period of time leading up to the Jan. 6 attack.
Cheney: “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain”
Cheney had a critical message for her Republican colleagues who are defending what is “indefensible.” Cheney herself has faced a major backlash from fellow Republicans for becoming a prominent critic of Trump and his lies over the election outcome.
Ivanka Trump: “I respect Attorney General Barr so I accepted what he was saying”
In a clip of recorded testimony shown during the hearing, Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter and former adviser, said former Attorney General Bill Barr’s statement that the Justice Department found no sufficient evidence to overturn the election changed her perspective — a statement that stands in contrast to her father’s repeated claims that the election was stolen.
Barr: “I made it clear that I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the President was bullshit”
Former Attorney General William Barr said that Trump’s claims about election fraud were “bullshit” in a recording of a closed-door deposition. Barr, who resigned in December 2020, said part of the reason that he left the Trump administration was because of the false claims of fraud that Trump was making.
Committee plans to release closed-door deposition transcripts, Thompson says
From CNN's Jeremy Herb
US Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, talks to CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday night.
(CNN)
House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson confirmed to CNN Thursday that the panel plans to release the transcripts from the closed-door depositions that it conducted in its sweeping investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to try to overturn the election.
“We’ll make it available,” Thompson said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper after the committee’s first hearing on Thursday.
Thompson also said that the committee planned to cooperate, if requested, with the Justice Department’s investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, while saying the committee’s job wasn’t to determine whether crimes had been committed. The Justice Department last month had asked for transcripts from the committee, but the panel resisted ahead of this month’s hearing.
On Thursday, the committee played video of staffers fleeing House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office. Asked about the video from the office of McCarthy — who has repeatedly criticized the committee — Thompson said that he tried to negotiate with McCarthy to create an independent commission, but McCarthy opposed it because of Trump.
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Thompson: There will be witnesses linking conversations between extremist groups and people in Trump's orbit
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, Jan. 6 House select committee chair, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that in future hearings there will be witnesses that will describe conversations between extremists groups and people who were in former President Donald Trump’s orbit.
Thompson explained that the committee made sure that everything that’s being presented could be verified and fact-checked.
“Everything that the public heard tonight is factual. We can prove it. Because as you know, the fact checkers will look at everything that was presented, and we made a conscious effort to only put on what we could prove. So, we put the tweets from the President. We put video from the President. We put everything on, but we put in and order that the public could now see that even when the President was told by the chief law enforcement officer, that he appointed, attorney general, that there was no fault in election. Obviously, the people he was listening to were not reputable in terms of looking at the evidence. And so, the President blew him off and started listening to people who had no real ground on the issue,” he said.
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Former Capitol Police officer who attended hearing: "That was rough to watch"
From CNN's Annie Grayer
Harry Dunn, one of the police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, listens to testimony while attending Thursday's hearing.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who attended tonight’s hearing, said videos of rioters breaching the Capitol were “rough to watch.”
“They warned us that they were going to play some footage,” Dunn said. The committee showed footage of how the violence unfolded during the hearing.
After the hearing concluded for the night, committee members shook hands with witnesses, thanked officers who attended tonight’s hearing and greeted wives and partners of the fallen US Capitol Police.
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards gave a long hug to Sandra Garza, the partner of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes and died one day after he confronted rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
During her testimony, Edwards mentioned seeing Sicknick and how he looked white and unwell as the riot unfolded.
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Trump's former aides knew they were being recorded while testifying
From CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Gabby Orr
In the coming days, expect to see a common refrain from former Trump officials who have tried to maintain their connections to him: that their testimony was “taken out of context.”
That’s the defense several who testified are planning to use if they come under fire by the former President or his acolytes, they told CNN, given this was often a tried and true strategy when Trump’s Cabinet secretaries would testify on Capitol Hill.
But several of former President Trump’s former aides knew they were being recorded while testifying before the Jan. 6 committee, multiple people told CNN.
One official said they were not explicitly told but assumed their testimony was being recorded. Others who testified in person said it was clear there were cameras set up in the room.
The taken out-of-context defense is one that could come in handy for staying in his good graces. In the first prime-time hearing, Trump’s allies, former staffers and even his daughter noted in recorded testimony that he was shown information showing he had lost the election, despite how Trump still maintains he didn’t.
One former senior Trump White House official told CNN he was informed at the outset of his closed-door meeting with the committee that footage of his testimony could potentially air in future public hearings.
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The hearing has concluded
From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Marshall Cohen and Zachary Cohen
The House Jan. 6 select committee’s first prime-time hearing has concluded.
Rep. Benny Thompson, the chair of the committee, and GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, laid out their case against former President Donald Trump and his involvement in events that led up to the Jan. 6 riot.
A Capitol Police officer and filmmaker who interacted directly with the Proud Boys testified about what they experienced during the insurrection and in the aftermath of the attack.
The committee will hold its next public hearing on Monday at 10 a.m. ET.
Here are some key takeaways from today’s hearing:
Members of Trump’s inner circle turned against him in depositions: The committee’s first hearing was bolstered with never-before-seen video clips showing members of Trump’s White House and campaign — as well as his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner — speaking about how they didn’t believe Trump’s claims that the election was stolen.Former Attorney General William Barr said that Trump’s claims of voter fraud were “bullshit.”Ivanka Trump said that she respected Barr and “accepted what he was saying” about the election. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the campaign data person told Trump in “pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose.”
And the committee cited testimony from Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon, who testified he told Meadows by “mid-to-late November” that the campaign had come up empty trying to find widespread fraud in key states that Trump lost. Cannon said Meadows responded to his assessment by saying, “So there’s no there there.”
New visceral footage from riot shown: The committee played a compilation of some of the most disturbing footage from the Jan. 6 attack.
They included some never-before seen material, including birds-eye view footage from security cameras that showed the enormous pro-Trump mob as it started swarming the Capitol grounds.
Trump didn’t want the riot to stop: The committee revealed testimony from Trump White House officials who said the former President did not want the US Capitol attack to stop, angrily resisted his own advisers who were urging him to call off the rioters and thought his own vice president “deserved” to be hanged. It also offers a new window into Trump’s demeanor during the riot — something the committee has repeatedly suggested would be a key part of their public hearings.
Cheney described testimony from a witness who said Trump was aware of chants to “Hang Mike Pence” and seemed to approve of them.
“Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the President responded with this sentiment: [quote] ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence [quote] ‘deserves’ it,” she said.
Cheney has previously characterized Trump’s inaction on Jan. 6 during those 187 minutes as a “dereliction of duty.”
Jan. 6 rioters testify that Trump called them to the Capitol
From CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand
To close out the first prime-time hearing, the House select committee played a video testimony of six people who were at the Jan. 6 riot claiming that they came to Washington, DC, because then-President Donald Trump called them to.
Walter was identified by the committee as a member of the Proud Boys, and said that Trump’s comments were “what got me interested” in going to DC.
Eric Barber, who pleaded guilty in December to theft and illegally entering the Capitol, said that Trump “personally asked for us to come to DC that day, and I thought for everything he’s done for us, that this is the only thing he’s gonna ask of me, I’ll do it.”
“That’s one of my disappointments,” Barber said. “He said he was gonna go, go with us, that he was gonna be there.”
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Capitol Police officer says of Jan. 6: "It was carnage. It was chaos."
From CNN's Clare Foran
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testifies on Thursday.
(Ting Shen/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards was asked by Committee Chair Bennie Thompson if she could describe a memory that stands out “most vividly” from the Jan. 6 attack.
Edwards went on to describe what she likened to “a war scene,” saying she witnessed “carnage” and chaos.”
She went on to say, “I’m trained to detain a couple of subjects and handle a crowd, but I’m not combat trained.”
Edwards said there were “hours of hand-to-hand combat.” She added that there were “hours of dealing with things that were way beyond what any law enforcement officer has ever trained for.”
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Proud Boys and Oath Keepers met in parking garage the night before insurrection, panel's findings show
(January 6 Committee Exhibit)
Findings of the panel, presented in a video by investigative counsel of the Jan. 6 committee Marcus Childress, show that the leaders of two extremist groups — the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — met in a Washington, DC, parking garage on Jan. 5, 2021.
The meeting between Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, andStewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, was caught on video obtained by the committee.
Before the meeting: On Dec. 19, 2020, President Trump tweeted about a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, saying, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
That tweet “energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said.
“Many of the witnesses we interviewed were inspired by the President’s call and came to D.C. for January 6th,” Childress said in the presentation.
“But the extremists, they took it a step further. They viewed this tweet as a call to arms,” he added.
Childress referred to a Department of Justice indictment that described how the Proud Boys created a chat called “the Ministry of Self Defense leadership chat” where they established a command structure with the intention of coming back to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021.
The committee also revealed that it talked to members of Proud Boys leadership, who have not been charged. They showed footage of a private deposition with one member who said that Trump’s infamous “stand back and stand by” comment to Proud Boys on the debate stage in September 2020 substantially increased enrollment in the far-right group.
Meanwhile, leading up to the insurrection, the Oath Keepers were also making preparations.
The committee learned that the group established “quick reaction forces” where they stored weapons in Virginia, Childress said.
“The goal of these quick reaction forces was to be on standby just in case President Trump ever invoked the Insurrection Act,” Childress said in the video.
“Individuals associated with two violent extremist groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6th attack,” Thompson said following the video presenting the evidence.
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Officer says she was knocked unconscious and tear-gassed during Jan. 6 riot
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described her experience confronting rioters and Proud Boy members on Jan. 6, 2021 and the injuries she suffered after an altercation while defending the US Capitol.
“They started approaching the first barricade. They ripped the first barricade down, and they approached our bike racks. At that time, we started holding on, grabbing the bike racks. There were not many of us, so I grabbed the middle between two different bike racks, and I was not under any pretense that I could hold it for very long. But I wanted to make sure that we could get more people down and get our [Civil Disturbance] units time to answer the call,” Edwards said.
She said that while trying to hold the line with fellow officers, “we started grappling over the bike racks. I felt the bike rack come on top of my head. I was pushed backwards, and my foot caught the stair behind me, my chin hit the handle, and at that point, I had blacked out. The back of my head clipped the concrete stairs behind me.”
Edwards said that she was knocked unconscious, but when she regained consciousness she returned to duty, where she was sprayed in the eyes by rioters and tear-gassed.
The House select committee has obtained “substantial evidence” showing that former President Donald Trump’s tweet on December 19, 2020, “energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups,” Chairman Bennie Thompson said.
The tweet said: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
The Justice Department also has cited that tweet in many of the Jan. 6-related criminal cases, and has argued that it was an important moment in the run-up to Jan. 6 that many of the rioters paid attention to – and were inspired by. This includes members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who have been charged with seditious conspiracy.
For instance, prosecutors said Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs texted the group’s president Enrique Tarrio after the tweet, saying, “Let’s get radical and recruit real men.” Prosecutors have said that the Proud Boys assembled a national leadership team one day later, as they started planning for their trip to DC for the Jan. 6 rally.
Prosecutors also said alleged Oath Keeper Roberto Minuta sent a text after Trump’s tweet, saying that he spoke with the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, and that Rhodes “feels like it’s go time” and that “the time for peaceful protest is over.”
On Thursday, the committee featured a social media post from alleged Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs in which he echoed Trump’s tweet about the plans for “wild” protests in DC.
All of these defendants have pleaded not guilty to and maintain their innocence.
The committee also revealed that it talked to members of Proud Boy leadership, who have not been charged. They showed footage of a private deposition with one member who said that Trump’s infamous “Stand back and stand by” comment to Proud Boys on the debate stage in September 2020 substantially increased enrollment in the far-right group.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed reporting to this post.
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Capitol Police officer who was injured in Jan. 6 attack: "They dared question my honor" and patriotism
US Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was hurt in the January 6 attack, testifies on Thursday.
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured after she was part of an altercation involving members of the Proud Boys while defending the US Capitol during the riot, said that the day of the insurrection was the first time her patriotism had been questioned, during her opening statement.
“I was called a lot of things on January 6, 2021 and the days after. I was called Nancy Pelosi’s dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain. I was called a traitor to my country, my oath and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things. I was an American standing face to face with other Americans, asking myself, how many times, many, many, times, how we had gotten here? I have been called names before, but never had my patriotism or duty been called into question. I, who got up every day, no matter how early the hour or how late I got in the night before, to put on my uniform and to protect America symbol of democracy. I, who spent countless hours in the baking sun and freezing snow to make sure that America’s elected officials were able to do their job. I, whose literal blood, sweat and tears were shed that day defending the building that I spent countless holidays and weekends working in,” Edwards said.
Edwards shared that her grandfather fought in the Korean War and “lived with the rest of his days with bullets and shrapnel in his legs, but never once complained about his sacrifice.”
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Documentarian on violence he witnessed during Jan. 6 attack: "I saw it, I documented it, and I experienced it"
From CNN's Clare Foran
Nick Quested, a documentary filmmaker who was embedded with the Proud Boys, testifies Thursday.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Documentarian Nick Quested, who is testifying before the Jan. 6 committee, explained how and why he witnessed the attack on the Capitol.
During his opening statements, Quested said that he was surprised at “the anger” he observed and described “incredibly aggressive chanting.”
“In the winter of 2020, I was working on a documentary. As part of that documentary, I filmed several rallies in Washington, DC,” he said, adding, “I learned there would be a rally on the mall on January 6.”
He said that he and several colleagues came to document the event.
“We arrived at the mall and observed a large contingent of Proud Boys marching toward the Capitol,” he said. “I documented the crowd turn from protestors to rioters to insurrectionists. I was surprised at the size of the group, the anger and the profanity.”
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A documentarian who embedded with the Proud Boys is speaking to the committee
From CNN's Paul LeBlanc
US Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and documentary filmmaker Nick Quested are sworn in to testify Thursday.
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Documentarian Nick Quested is testifying now in the Jan. 6 committee hearing.
Quested was embedded with the Proud Boys for a significant period of time leading up to January 6 and is considered a firsthand fact witness because of the amount of time he spent with the group.
He has already been deposed by the committee and Justice Department officials about his experience on January 6 and has provided the committee and the department with video footage from the filming of his documentary.
Why the focus on the Proud Boys? Leaders of the Proud Boys were involved in some of the early clashes that overpowered police lines and breached the Capitol.
The group has been a focus of the Justice Department for months, and on Monday, the agency charged the head of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, and four other leaders with seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6 attack.
These are the most aggressive charges brought by the Justice Department against the Proud Boys, and the first allegations by prosecutors that the group tried to oppose by force the presidential transfer of power.
Tarrio and his co-defendants previously pleaded not guilty to an earlier slate of charges.
Capitol Police officer who was injured after altercation with Proud Boys members on Jan. 6 is testifying
From CNN's Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer and Zachary Cohen
US Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards was injured in the January 6 attack.
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured after she was part of an altercation involving members of the Proud Boys while defending the US Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, is now providing testimony to the House select committee.
Leaders of the Proud Boys were involved in some of the early clashes that overpowered police lines and breached the Capitol. The group has been a focus of the Justice Department for months, and earlier this week the agency charged the head of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, and four other leaders with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
These are the most aggressive charges brought by the Justice Department against the Proud Boys, and the first allegations by prosecutors that the group tried to oppose by force the presidential transfer of power.
Tarrio and his co-defendants previously pleaded not guilty to an earlier slate of charges.
Broadly, committee members have teased that the hearings could be focused on former President Donald Trump’s role in undermining the 2020 presidential election results.
The panel has been working toward a thesis that former President Donald Trump’s obsession with his election loss and his peddling of false claims about the results laid the groundwork for the deadly riot at the Capitol.
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Catch up: Here's what happened during the first half of the hearing
The House select committee holds its first public hearing on Thursday.
(Andrew Harnik/AP)
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the committee, and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee, opened the hearing with statements and then showed a video of the Capitol attack that had not yet been released.
In case you missed the first portion of the hearing, here’s what happened:
Liz Cheney: The Republican said former President Donald Trump had a “sophisticated seven-part plan” to overturn the presidential election over the course of several months, detailing how the panel plans to use its future hearings to tackle each part of the scheme. She argued Trump “summoned the mob.”
Bennie Thompson: The committee chairman said the job of the committee is to do more than look to the past. He warned Americans that “our democracy remains still in danger.” He hopes the hearings remind people of the reality of that day.
Ivanka Trump: The committee played a clip from the former President’s daughter, saying she accepted Bill Barr and the Department of Justice’s assessment there was no fraud sufficient enough to overturn the election.
At the hearing: Mother of fallen US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, Gladys Sicknick, had a box of tissues under her seat, and used tissues appearing to be crying during the intense video presentation showing how rioters breached the Capitol. Brian Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes one day after he confronted rioters at the Capitol, according to a ruling from DC’s chief medical examiner. Sicknick’s longtime partner, Sandra Garza, is also in attendance tonight. USCP officer Harry Dunn wiped away tears from his eyes when talking to Gladys Sicknick during the break.
Coming up: Documentarian Nick Quested, who filmed members of the Proud Boys in the week leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, and Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured while defending the US Capitol, will testify.
CNN’s Annie Grayer contributed reporting to this post.
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Ex-Trump adviser Jason Miller says his deposition was taken out of context
From CNN's Kristen Holmes and Sarah Fortinsky
Jason Miller, Donald Trump’s campaign spokesperson, is claiming he was taken out of context during tonight’s Jan. 6 hearing.
During the hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney played a clip of Miller:
Miller is now reacting on twitter, saying that Cheney did not play the rest of the clip in which Trump disagreed with Oczkowski and believed that Oczkowski was not looking at the prospect of “legal challenges” going Trump’s way:
“Here’s what came next in my testimony, which Liz Cheney failed to play:
Q: Okay. And what was the President’s reaction then when Matt said to him, ‘Hey, we’ve looked at the numbers, you’re going to lose’? A: I think it’s safe to say he disagreed with Matt’s analysis,” Miller wrote in a Twitter thread.
Remember: Despite this belief, the Trump campaign has lost almost every legal challenge regarding election fraud.
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The committee is back after a short break and will hear testimony from 2 witnesses
The panel will now hear testimony from two witnesses: documentarian Nick Quested, who has filmed members of the Proud Boys, and Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured after an altercation involving members of the Proud Boys.
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Footage shown of people fleeing House GOP leader's office from Trump mob
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
The Jan. 6 committee showed never-before-seen footage of people rushing out of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office during the early stages of the riot.
The clip was included in a montage of some of the most violent moments from the riot, including Trump supporters attacking police officers and smashing windows.
In the days after the insurrection, McCarthy said former President Donald Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack.
But over time, he cozied back up to Trump. Asked by CNN at a news conference earlier today about Trump’s culpability, McCarthy said, “everybody in the country bears some responsibility.”
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Former Trump White House counsel repeatedly threatened to quit, Jared Kushner told Jan. 6 committee
From CNN's Katelyn Polantz
(Pool)
Former President Trump’s final White House counsel Pat Cipollone repeatedly threatened to quit, the committee revealed, citing testimony from Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner.
“The White House Counsel was so concerned about potentially lawless activity, he threatened to resign, multiple times,” Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, said at the hearing.
“That is exceedingly rare and exceedingly serious. It requires immediate attention, especially when the entire team threatens to resign. However, in the Trump White House, it was not exceedingly rare and it was not treated seriously.”
It is not known whether Cipollone will testify to the House select committee.
Kushner, in his testimony, also said he believed those threatening to quit could have been “whining.”
The committee didn’t provide further detail about the near-resignations on Thursday.
The incident echoed a significant moment central to the Russia investigation in the first half of Trump’s presidency. Special counsel Robert Mueller documented how then-White House Counsel Don McGahn prepared to quit rather than shut down the investigation at Trump’s order, and Mueller found the incident met the legal threshold for obstruction of justice, though Trump was not charged.
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The committee plays never-before-seen video footage
(Pool)
Right now, the committee is playing video footage that has not yet been released. The video shows the day of Jan. 6, 2021 in chronological order, starting in the morning before the Capitol is breached.
The video includes timestamps and audio of officers responding to crowds storming the building.
“We need backup,” a voice said as violent scenes play out.
The clips show rioters breaking windows and pushing through barricades. Some people are specifically identified as Proud Boys by captions written on the screen.
“Hold the line! Hold the line!” officers yell as they physically clash with rioters at about 2 p.m. ET, according to the video.
“I need support,” an officer says over body camera footage of another officer getting pushed by crowds. “We lost the line,” the officer continues.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot is starting to present their findings to the public. They have been looking into what happened before and after the insurrection, interviewing witnesses and going through messages.
But, Thursday’s presentation is just the first of many. There are several other hearings scheduled for the rest of June, including three next week.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, said there are a few things Americans should keep in mind as the committee releases these initial findings.
First, the investigation is still ongoing. “What we make public here will not be the complete set of information we will ultimately disclose,” Cheney said.
Secondly, Cheney said the Department of Justice is currently working with cooperating witnesses.She added that the department has only released some of the information it has uncovered from “encrypted communications and other sources.”
While the committee cannot bring legal charges against former President Donald Trump, its central mission has been to uncover the full scope of Trump’s unprecedented attempt to stop the transfer of power.
Cheney also outlined what topics are likely to come up at the upcoming hearings:
She said the second hearing on Monday will show “Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information” even though “Trump and his advisors knew that he had, in fact, lost the election.” Ivanka Trump, the former President’s daughter and senior adviser, told the committee that she respected Attorney General Bill Barr and “accepted” his statement that there wasn’t sufficient fraud to overturn the election.
The third hearing on Wednesday will show how “Trump corruptly planned to replace the Attorney General of the United States so the US Justice Department would spread his false stolen election claims,” Cheney said.
Cheney said the fourth hearing will illustrate “Trump’s efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes on Jan. 6th.”
The fifth hearing will provide “evidence that President Trump corruptly pressured state legislators and election officials to change election results,” including “details” about Trump’s call to Georgia officials urging them to “find” votes.
Finally, the last two June hearings will show how “Trump summoned a violent mob and directed them, illegally, to march on the US Capitol” and “failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.”
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Top US general testified that Pence — not Trump — ordered National Guard troops to respond to Jan. 6 riot
From CNN's Zach Cohen
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley is seen on video during the hearing on Thursday.
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the Jan 6. committee, revealed new video from the committee’s interview with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley saying then-Vice President Mike Pence was the one who ordered National Guard troops to respond to the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, but that he was told by the White House to say it was former President Trump.
“He was very animated, very direct, very firm to Secretary Miller. Get the military down here, get the guard down here. Put down this situation, et cetera,” he added, referring to Pence.
Milley also described his interactions with Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows that day, drawing a stark contrast between those conversations with Pence.
“He said: We have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions. We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable, or words to that effect,” Milley says in the video, referring to what Meadows told him.
“I immediately interpreted that as politics. Politics. Politics. Red flag for me, personally. No action. But I remember it distinctly,” he added.
CNN previously reported that Pence, not Trump, facilitated the mobilization of National Guard troops to respond to the riot.
The video of Milley’s testimony, who remains the top US military officer now in the Biden administration, speaks to how the committee will seek to highlight what Trump was doing, and not doing, as the violence was spiraling out of control – something CNN has previously reported will be an area of focus during the public hearings.
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Cheney tells Jan. 6 defenders: "Your dishonor will remain" after Trump is gone
From CNN's Clare Foran
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, had a critical message to members of her own party who, in her words, defend what is “indefensible.”
Cheney herself has faced a major backlash from fellow Republicans for becoming a prominent critic of Trump and his lies over the election outcome.
Last year, Cheney lost her post in House Republican leadership after publicly rejecting for months Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 presidential election.
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Top DOJ official says Trump loyalist was proposing "meddling" in election outcome
From CNN's Alex Rogers
The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 will hold a hearing next week exploring how former President Donald Trump “corruptly” planned to replace acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen “so the US Justice Department would spread his false stolen election claims,” according to Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.
In her opening statement, Cheney said that Trump offered Jeff Clark, the acting attorney general of the civil division, the job of acting attorney general, and wanted him to send a letter to battleground states saying that the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election.”
After the letter was circulated around the Justice Department, the plan drew fierce blowback from top officials, including then-acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue.
In audio aired on Thursday night, Donoghue testified that he told Clark, “What you are proposing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election.”
Rosen and Donoghue have been invited by the committee to publicly testify in its hearings. Clark has refused to testify.
The House committee’s effort follows a months-long investigation by the Senate Judiciary committee, which released a report last year on how Trump and Clark sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
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Pence's fidelity to Constitution was more important than to Trump, VP's chief of staff told committee
From CNN's Zachary Cohen
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s then-chief of staff, Marc Short, acknowledged to the Jan. 6 committee during closed-door testimony that his former boss knew former President Donald Trump lost the election and determined his “fidelity to the Constitution was more important that his fidelity to President Trump,” according to previously unseen video played during tonight’s hearing.
“I think the vice president was proud of his four years of service and he felt like much had been accomplished during those four years. And I think he was proud to have stood beside the President for all that had been done. But I think he ultimately knew that his fidelity to the Constitution was his first and foremost oath, and that’s – that’s what he articulated publicly and I think that’s what he felt,” Short said in the short video clip.
Short was then asked if Pence’s “fidelity to the Constitution was more important that his fidelity to President Trump and his desire …”
He responded: “The oath he took, yes.”
Short quietly testified before the committee behind closed doors in January after receiving a subpoena and his interview marked the most significant sign to date that Pence’s team was cooperating with the probe.
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Rep. Scott Perry and other GOP lawmakers sought pardons from Trump after Jan. 6
From CNN's Katelyn Polantz
US Rep. Scott Perry takes a reporter's question in August 2021.
(Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP/File)
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, said that Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and “multiple other Republican congressmen” sought pardons from then-President Donald Trump after Jan. 6, 2021.
Perry didn’t speak at the pro-Trump rally on Jan. 6, 2021, but was a key player in multiple aspects of Trump’s effort to undermine the 2020 election — and the committee has sought his testimony.
CNN previously reported that Reps. Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks and Paul Gosar were among some Republicans who feared their legal exposure and sought clemency.
They were ultimately not pardoned, nor were charged Jan. 6 insurrection defendants who also lobbied for pardons.
Top advisers around Trump, including his family, told Trump not to pardon himself, his family or any GOP lawmakers prospectively.
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At least 4 Trump aides testified that they told him — and his team — that he lost reelection
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
At least four Trump aides testified to the Jan. 6 House select committee that they told former President Trump or his former chief of staff Mark Meadows that he lost the 2020 election and there wasn’t widespread voter fraud, according to portions of their depositions that were revealed Thursday at the panel’s first major public hearing.
The officials included Attorney General Bill Barr, Trump campaign spokesperson Jason Miller, the Trump campaign’s general counsel Matt Morgan, and another Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon.
According to a clip of Barr’s testimony, played during Thursday’s hearing, Barr said: “I repeatedly told the President in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud, you know, that would have affected the outcome of the election. And frankly, a year and a half later, I still haven’t seen anything to change my mind on that.”
Barr also said the conspiracy theories that Trump embraced about Dominion voting machines rigging the election were “complete nonsense,” and that he advised Trump that it was “crazy stuff.”
And Cannon testified that he told Meadows by “mid-to-late November” that the campaigns came up empty when it tried to find widespread fraud in key states that Trump lost. Cannon said Meadows responded to his assessment by saying, “so there’s no there there.” (Despite that acknowledgement, Meadows continued aiding Trump’s efforts to push false voter fraud claims.)
This was the first time that it became publicly known that Morgan and Cannon met with the committee behind closed doors, and shows that the panel got some cooperation from Trump campaign operatives, even though other senior Trump advisers have resisted the subpoenas and refused to provide documents.
Many of these witnesses sat for lengthy interviews, but the committee showed only selective excerpts during Thursday’s primetime hearing, and has not yet released full transcripts of their depositions.
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Ex-Trump adviser says former President was told "in pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose"
From CNN's Paul LeBlanc
(January 6 Committee Deposition)
The House select committee played a clip of recorded testimony from ex-Trump adviser Jason Miller stating that then-President Donald Trump was told by the campaign’s lead data aide “in pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose.”
A former senior adviser to Trump, Miller was involved in the former President’s 2016 and 2020 White House bids.
CNN previously reported that, days after the election, his campaign’s top data adviser told Trump in “blunt terms” that he was headed towards defeat, according to an account Miller gave the committee, which was disclosed in deposition excerpts filed with the court.
Miller himself gave Trump his opinion — in “several” conversations — that “specific to election day fraud and irregularities, there were not enough to overturn the election,” according to his account to the committee.
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Panel plans to use future hearings to examine role of Trump lawyer in plans to subvert election certification
From CNN's Katelyn Polantz
John Eastman speaks in Boulder, Colorado, in April 2021.
The House Select Committee plans to use future hearings to examine how former President Donald Trump used a conduit, lawyer John Eastman, in his plans to subvert the certification of the election on Jan. 6, 2021.
The committee has obtained hundreds of Eastman’s emails on the subject as recently as yesterday, though they have not yet been released publicly.
In response to the House committee, Eastman invoked his Fifth Amendment right protecting him from self-incrimination, so he did not provide any testimony.
Michael Luttig, a former federal judge who advised former Vice President Mike Pence not to throw out the electoral vote, spoke to the committee about Eastman.
Luttig said Eastman was “wrong at every turn,” according to GOP. Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee.
Cheney also highlighted a searing email from another lawyer close to Pence, his former chief counsel Greg Jacob. “Thanks to your bullshit, we are under siege,” Jacob wrote to Eastman during the insurrection.
On Wednesday, the House Committee was still obtaining some of Eastman’s emails. A handful of additional emails they received yesterday largely focused on the electors plan, and getting state legislators on board with it, according to court proceedings.
Some of those emails documented meeting agendas where Eastman laid out a so-called “ground game” in the states. Others “do not offer legal advice but aim to persuade legislators to take political action,” the judge wrote.
The electors scheme is now under investigation in two criminal probes—in Georgia and by federal authorities.
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Thompson contrasts Trump's election lies to Lincoln's commitment to a peaceful transfer of power
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, highlighted the oath that lawmakers take to “defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic” and how the attack on Jan. 6 tested the oath, during his opening statement.
“When the United States Capitol was stormed and burned in 1814, foreign enemies were responsible. After war in 1862, when American citizens had taken up arms on this country, Congress adopted a new oath to help make sure that no person who had supported the rebellion could hold a position of public trust. Therefore, congresspersons and United States federal government employees were required for the first time to swear an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath was put to test on January 6, 2021,” Thompson said.
He added, “But unlike in 1814, it was domestic enemies of the Constitution who stormed the Capitol and occupied the Capitol, who sought to thwart the will of the people, to stop the transfer of power. And, so, they did at the encouragement of the President of the United States, the President of the United States trying to stop the transfer of power, a precedent that had stood for 220 years, even as our democracy had faced its most difficult test,” referring to former President Trump.
Thompson contrasted Trump’s reluctance to transfer power to President Abraham Lincoln’s commitment to maintain the tradition despite the Civil War.
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Ivanka Trump testified she accepted there was no fraud sufficient to overturn election
From CNN's Zachary Cohen
Former White House Senior Adviser Ivanka Trump is seen on a video screen during Thursday night's public hearing.
(Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
The House select committee played a clip of recorded testimony from former President Donald Trump’s daughter and former White House adviser Ivanka Trump during their first prime-time hearing.
In the clip, Ivanka Trump comments on then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s statement that the Justice Department found no sufficient evidence to overturn the election.
Ivanka Trump’s testimony that she accepted Barr’s statement stands in stark contrast to her father who continues to falsely insist the 2020 election was stolen and sought to use unfounded claims of widespread election fraud to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate electoral victory.
Despite testifying that she accepted what Barr said, Ivanka Trump did still accompany her father to the Jan. 6 rally at the White House Ellipse, which preceded the US Capitol attack.
Ivanka Trump met virtually with the committee in April for nearly eight hours and CNN previously reported that she corroborated critical testimony from other witnesses who said the then-President was reluctant to try to call off the rioters despite being asked to do so.
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What you need to know about the sedition charges that Rep. Liz Cheney touted
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
US Rep. Liz Cheney delivers remarks on Thursday night.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chair of the House select committee, touted the seditious conspiracy charges that are pending against members of far-right extremist groups who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
As of Thursday, the Justice Department has charged 17 alleged members of these groups with seditious conspiracy, and three of them have pleaded guilty. (The other defendants deny the allegations.)
About 98% of defendants are not charged with seditious conspiracy, though hundreds of alleged rioters are charged with a different felony – obstructing an official proceeding, namely the joint session of Congress that was convened on Jan. 6, 2021 to certify President Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.
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Cheney: Trump had a "seven-part plan" to overturn the election
From CNN's Dana Bash, Jake Tapper and Jeremy Herb
Former President Donald Trump had a “sophisticated seven-point plan” to overturn the 2020 presidential election over the course of several months, Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney said, detailing how the panel plans to use its future hearings to tackle each part of the scheme.
Cheney did not detail the specific points of the plan in her opening statement. She said that the rioters who breached the Capitol and fought with police were motivated by Trump’s actions falsely claiming that the election was stolen from him.
“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said, echoing the statement she made in 2021 when she voted to impeach Trump.
A committee source later provided CNN the following description of the “sophisticated seven-part plan”:
“President Trump oversaw a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the 2020 election and prevent the transition of presidential power.
President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to the American public claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.
President Trump corruptly planned to replace the Acting Attorney General, so that the Department of Justice would support his fake election claims.
President Trump corruptly pressured Vice President Pence to refuse to count certified electoral votes in violation of the US Constitution and the law.
President Trump corruptly pressured state election officials, and state legislators, to change election results.
President Trump’s legal team and other Trump associates instructed Republicans in multiple states to create false electoral slates and transmit those slates to Congress and the National Archives.
President Trump summoned and assembled a violent mob in Washington and directed them to march on the US Capitol.
As the violence was underway, President Trump ignored multiple pleas for assistance and failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.
These are initial findings and the Select Committee’s investigation is still ongoing. In addition, the Department of Justice is currently working with cooperating witnesses, and has disclosed to date only certain of the information it has identified from encrypted communications and other sources.”
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Trump was "really angry" at advisers who told him to call off rioters on Jan. 6, witnesses told committee
From CNN's Zachary Cohen
The House Jan. 6 committee is in possession of witness testimony detailing how former President Donald Trump angrily resisted when advisers urged him to put out a statement calling off the rioters as the violence was unfolding on Jan. 6, 2021, the panel’s Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney revealed tonight.
Cheney said the panel will present testimony from former White House officials that Trump “didn’t really want to put anything out,” telling those carrying out the violence to stop or his supporters to leave.
Cheney also described testimony from a witness who detailed Trump’s animosity toward then-Vice-President Mike Pence when those around him voiced concerns about the rioters chanting to hang him.
What Cheney presented tonight goes further than what was known about the committee’s focus on Trump’s inaction during the riot and underscores how he actively resisted calls from advisers to help put an end to it.
Cheney has previously characterized Trump’s inaction on Jan. 6 during those 187 minutes as a “dereliction of duty” and what the former President was doing, and not doing, is expected to be a key area of focus during the committee’s public hearings.
As is Trump’s anger at Pence for refusing to help overturn the 2020 election outcome.
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Cheney: "Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack"
From CNN's Clare Foran
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, laid the blame for the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol squarely at former President Donald Trump’s feet during her opening statement.
“On this point, there is no room for debate,” Cheney said. “Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them — that the election was stolen, and that he was the rightful President.”
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Thompson says job of Jan. 6 committee is to do more than focus on past: "Our democracy remains in danger"
(Alex Brandon/Pool/AP)
House select committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said the purpose of the panel’s hearings is to remind Americans of “the reality” of what happened during the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol.
In his opening remarks, Thompson who is a Democrat from Mississippi, said he came to the committee “as an American who swore an oath to defend the Constitution.”
The chairman said the work of the committee is “to do much more than just look backward.”
“Our democracy remains in danger. The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over,” he said.
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Documentarian Nick Quested says he's testifying under subpoena
From CNN's Katelyn Polantz and Ryan Nobles
Documentarian Nick Quested, who was embedded with the Proud Boys up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, is being compelled to testify under a subpoena tonight, he reveals in his opening statement.
“I am here today pursuant to a House subpoena,” the statement reads.
“I documented the crowd turn from protesters to insurrectionists,” Quested said in his statement.
Quested noted he also provided his video footage to authorities.
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Partner of fallen Capitol officer says she hopes justice comes from hearings
Garza is at the hearing and accompanied by members of the Capitol Police, including Harry Dunn, as well as retired DC police officer Michael Fanone.
Asked if she feels that the hearing may serve as some justice for Sicknick, Garza said she was hopeful.
“I hope so. Justice for me, for Brian, would be having Donald Trump in prison, but it doesn’t seem like that ever happens. The man seems to escape justice time and time again. But maybe today would change that. That would be a wonderful thing. I don’t know. We’ll see,” she said.
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GOP Rep. Liz Cheney is delivering opening remarks. Here's what to know about the panel's vice chairwoman.
From CNN's Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is speaking now in the January 6 committee hearing.
Cheney has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach him. House Republicans have punished her for her public opposition to Trump by removing her as their party’s conference chairwoman in May of last year and she faces a Trump-endorsed challenger in the GOP primary in her reelection bid. That primary is in August.
Cheney told CBS in an interview that aired over the weekend that she believes the January 6 attack was a conspiracy, saying when asked, “I do. It is extremely broad. It’s extremely well organized. It’s really chilling.”
Read about the other eight committee members here.
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Former Attorney General Bill Barr says he told Trump voter fraud "was bullshit"
From CNN's Jeremy Herb
(Jan. 6 Committee Exhibit)
The committee showed video of former Attorney General William Barr’s closed-door deposition, where Barr said simply that Trump’s claims were “bullshit.”
Barr, who resigned in December 2020, said part of the reason that he left the Trump administration was because of the false claims of fraud Trump was making.
“I made it clear that I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the President was bullshit,” Barr said in the deposition.
Barr announced publicly on December 1, 2020, that the Justice Department had not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud. His comments enraged Trump, and Barr he resigned several weeks later.
Barr was replaced by then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who was subjected to a pressure campaign by Trump and his allies to throw the Justice Department’s support behind Trump’s false claims of voter fraud. When he resisted, Trump considered replacing him with a loyalist who would back the baseless fraud allegations.
At the time of his resignation, Barr didn’t give that reason. Instead he started with:
“I appreciate the opportunity to update you this afternoon on the department’s review of voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election and how these allegations will continue to be pursued. At a time when the country is so deeply divided, it is incumbent on all levels of government, and all agencies acting within their purview, to do all we can to assure the integrity of elections and promote public confidence in their outcome.”
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Chairman Thompson compares justifying racism in US history with justifying actions of Jan. 6 insurrectionists
Committee chairman Bennie Thompson delivers his opening remarks Thursday night.
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the chairman of the House select committee, compared those trying to justify the actions of insurrections at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to those who try to justify racism and racial violence in American history.
Thompson in his opening remarks talked about how he is from a rural part of the state.
Remember: Members of the committee recognize that they have two important missions tonight: First to re-introduce the events of Jan. 6, 2021, to the American people and remind them of the gravity of the situation and the implications it could have had on the peaceful transfer of power.
The second is to introduce their thesis — that Donald Trump is specifically responsible for the push to undermine the election results and that effort was directly tied to the Capitol riot.
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Rep. Bennie Thompson is delivering opening remarks. Here's what to know about the panel's chairman.
From CNN's Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles
Committee chairman Bennie Thompson delivers opening remarks on Thursday.
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi is the chairman of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack and also serves as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, the first ever Democrat to hold the position.
As chairman of the Homeland Security panel, Thompson introduced and oversaw the House’s passage of the legislative recommendations after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Thompson is a civil rights pioneer who started his political career by registering fellow African Americans to vote in the segregated South. His first political victory was being elected the first Black mayor of his hometown of Bolton, Mississippi. He is the only Democrat serving in Mississippi’s delegation.
Thompson views the work of the January 6 committee in the same vein as his work in the civil rights struggle.
“Our democracy is at stake,” he told CNN. “We have to defend our democracy. We have to defend our government.”
Read about the other eight committee members here.
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Prosecutors are watching the hearing for new evidence
It’s possible at the end of the committee’s investigation, it makes criminal referrals, or something less formal by turning over evidence that prosecutors could examine.
During a hearing for the criminal case against the Proud Boys on Thursday, Justice Department prosecutors said that the committee is planning to release all 1,000 witness transcripts from its investigation in early September, coinciding with the trial of five Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy for their involvement in the riot.
Officials are mindful that some members of the committee have been critical at the pace of the DOJ investigation.
But they believe that criticism is outdated. Recent subpoenas looking into the “alternate electors” scheme and ties to the Trump campaign, as well as other indications prosecutors are looking beyond the rioters and focusing on people who helped instigate the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
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NOW: The hearing is starting
The House select committee is seated for Thursday night's hearing.
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot has started its first prime-time hearing.
The nine-person panel has spent months investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — interviewing members of the Trump administration and the former President’s inner circle.
Tonight, they will unveil an in-depth assessment of events leading up to the day Congress was to affirm Joe Biden’s victory, the administration’s response to the violence at the Capitol and what unfolded in the aftermath among Trump and his allies.
Here’s a quick look at what to expect:
Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee and one of the two Republicans on the panel, and committee Chairman Bennie Thompson are expected to lead the hearing with remarks.
The panel is expected to call Nick Quested — a documentarian who filmed the Proud Boys on and before the Jan. 6 riot— to testify, as well as Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured defending the US Capitol.
The committee is expected to play portions of witness testimony taped during interviews with the committee from Trump officials and family members. This could include Ivanka Trump, according to Thompson.
The presentation is also expected to include never previously released videos of before and during the attack.
There will be one short break.
CNN’s Chandelis Duster contributed reporting to this post.
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Hearing expected to end with revelatory video, source says
From CNN's Manu Raju
A source familiar with the matter said that the hearing will set the stage for the events of Jan. 6, 2021, but won’t answer every question. Yet it will end with a video that this source says will be very revelatory. The source declined to provide any more details.
In the hallway right now, a number of House Democrats are piling into the spectator seats of the hearing room, and some members of the Capitol Police are expected to also attend.
Hero cop Eugene Goodman is not expected to attend, another source said.
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Wives and partner of officers who died after responding to Capitol attack expected to attend tonight's hearing
From CNN's Whitney Wild and Jessica Schneider
Sandra Garza, partner of the late Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, holds hands with Serena Liebengood, widow of Capitol Police officer Howie Liebengood.
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Three women — all the wives or long-time partner of the officers who died after responding to the Capitol attack — are expected to attend the first Jan. 6 hearing tonight.
Erin Smith, Sandra Garza and Serena Liebengood will attend the hearing in person, accompanied by Capitol police officers Harry Dunn, Daniel Hodges, and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell.
Erin Smith’s attorney confirmed she plans to attend, but does not plan to speak. Smith’s husband Jeffrey Smith was an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department. Officer Smith died nine days after responding to the Capitol attack. Video evidence turned over to the District of Columbia’s Police and Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board showed Officer Smith assaulted by the mob and hit in the head with a metal pole on Jan. 6, 2021. His death by suicide was declared a line of duty death in early March of this year, and his wife Erin is now entitled to full benefits.
Serena Liebengood is still fighting to have her husband’s death ruled in the line of duty. Capitol Police officer Howie Liebengood died by suicide in the days after Jan. 6, 2021. Liebengood says her husband assisted with riot control on Jan. 6, 2021 and then worked lengthy shifts in the days that followed.
In a letter to Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton soon after his death in 2021 urging her husband’s death be declared in the line of duty, Liebengood wrote of her husband’s experience: “Although he was severely sleep-deprived, he remained on duty — as he was directed — practically around the clock from January 6th through the 9th. On the evening of the 9th, he took his life at our home.”
Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes one day after he confronted rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a ruling from D.C.’s chief medical examiner.
His longtime partner Sandra Garza wrote an op-ed for CNN last June blasting Republican lawmakers who refused to acknowledge the gravity of the Capitol attack: “As the months passed, my deep sadness turned to outright rage as I watched Republican members of Congress lie on TV and in remarks to reporters and constituents about what happened that day. Over and over they denied the monstrous acts committed by violent protestors….To know that some members of Congress – along with the former President, Donald Trump, who Brian and I once supported but who can only now be viewed as the mastermind of that horrible attack – are not acknowledging Brian’s heroism that day is unforgivable and un-American.”
CNN’s Jamie Gangel contributed to this report.
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Former Presidents decided against recording messages for hearing, fearful of injecting politics, sources say
From CNN's Jeff Zeleny
Americans will not be hearing from their former Presidents tonight.
The House select committee asked some of the former living Presidents whether they would record a video message about the importance of the peaceful transition of power in the United States, people familiar with the matter tell CNN, with a particular focus from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Barack Obama.
The three former Presidents decided against making the video messages, people familiar with the matter say, fearful that it could unnecessarily inject politics into the investigation — and create an unnecessary opening for the other member of the President’s club, Donald Trump, to seize upon.
While Clinton, Bush and Obama all have spoken out against the attack on the Capitol — in real-time messages on that day, as the violence was underway, and multiple times over the past year — the trio will not be heard from tonight.
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The Jan. 6 committee hearing is starting soon. Here are key things to watch for.
From CNN's Zachary Cohen, Jeremy Herb, Ryan Nobles and Annie Grayer
The House select committee meets on Capitol Hill in March.
(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 will use its first prime-time public heariay to make the case that former President Donald Trump was at the center of a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election and prevent the transition of power, according to the committee.
The panel will reveal new evidence that aides say will help “connect the dots” between Trump’s election lies, his attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win and the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the US Capitol in an effort to stop the counting of electoral votes.
Aides outlined the first public hearing, which will take place in prime time, as the committee’s opening salvo – previewing what’s to come in the month’s worth of planned hearings.
Here’s what to watch for:
New video and attempt to draw a direct line between Trump and violence
Thursday, the committee plans to show previously unseen video of testimony collected during closed depositions that includes interviews with Trump White House aides, campaign officials and members of Trumps’ family.
Committee aides said they also plan to show video to remind the public what happened on January 6 when the Capitol was overrun by a violent mob. “We’ll bring the American people back to the reality of that violence and remind them of just how horrific it was,” one aide said.
The committee said the “vast majority” of the video that it plans to show has not been seen publicly before.
That video will be supplemented by live witness testimony from two witnesses who had an up-close view of the rioters: US Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was among the first injured by rioters on January 6, and documentarian Nick Quested, who had unique access to members of militia groups who took part in the attack.
The committee will seek to use that evidence to draw a direct line between Trump and the groups who perpetrated the violence on Jan. 6. Committee Chair Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney will make opening statements and they will be the ones to question the witnesses Thursday, aides said.
While the hearings won’t be the committee’s final word – a report is planned for later in the year – it’s the panel’s highest-profile opportunity to convince the public whose views have hardened about why it should care about what happened on January 6. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are preparing their own counter-programming to attack the committee’s work as a political attack on Trump.
Committee members are aware of the stakes of tonight's hearing
From CNN's Ryan Nobles
From left, US Reps. Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney and Jamie Raskin leave after a committee meeting in March.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The members of the Jan. 6 House select committee are aware of the high expectations connected to tonight’s hearing. Committee members acknowledge that there has been a significant period of time since the Capitol riot and that much of their investigation has been conducted behind closed doors.
Members of the committee recognize that they have two important missions tonight: First to re-introduce the events of Jan. 6, 2021, to the American people and remind them of the gravity of the situation and the implications it could have had on the peaceful transfer of power.
The second is to introduce their thesis — that Donald Trump is specifically responsible for the push to undermine the election results and that effort was directly tied to the Capitol riot.
Their goal is re-invest the public in the urgency of the moment. They hope that opens the door to more interest in their future hearings and ultimately their final report in the fall.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland has told officials he plans to watch the hearing
From CNN's Evan Perez and Edward-Isaac Dovere
(Alex Brandon/AP)
Attorney General Merrick Garland has told officials that he intends to watch as much of tonight’s Jan. 6 committee hearing as he can.
Garland and the Justice Department have been playing a key role in investigating the insurrection at the Capitol. CNN reported earlier this week that top Democratic leaders in Washington and across the country fear that Donald Trump might be running for president again by the time Garland decides whether to prosecute him and others in his orbit for the Jan. 6 insurrection — and that any action by President Biden’s Justice Department could be cast by Republicans as little more than a political vendetta.
Two dozen leading Democrats in Washington and across the country tell CNN that Garland may have missed his moment to bring criminal charges against top Trump administration officials before it would get caught up in the 2024 presidential campaign jockeying set to begin later this year, after the midterm elections.
Garland, a longtime federal judge with a quiet demeanor, has vowed to keep politics out of decision-making at the Justice Department, though he says he is not avoiding political cases. And Justice officials say they still have plenty of time in President Biden’s administration should they decide to bring prosecutions for any crimes connected to the effort to overturn the election results.
The Justice Department has traditionally held to a 60-day window before Election Days to hold off on political prosecutions, which would put a cutoff date in early September. However, that usually has applied only to people who are on the ballot in the upcoming election.
Justice officials tell CNN they believe that moving slowly and saying little bolsters their credibility, something they’ll need as they investigate people associated with the 2020 Trump campaign. Even so, prosecutors have charged more than 800 defendants as part of the largest investigation in US Justice Department history.
The "heart" of tonight's hearing will be Rep. Liz Cheney's opening remarks
From CNN's Dana Bash
US Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House select committee, testifies before the House Rules Committee in April.
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP/File)
The “heart” of the hearing will be Rep Liz Cheney’s opening remarks – which are written like the opening statement of a trial.
She will lay out step by step what happened on Jan. 6 and to do that she will use clips from closed-door testimony that the committee has gathered since it was formed almost a year ago.
What to watch: Expect those clips to include Donald Trump’s family members but also other people in and around the former President. This is all about connecting the dots in a way that paints a picture – and Cheney will be crucial in doing that tonight.
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Fact check: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely claims Schumer rejected National Guard presence for Jan. 6
From CNN's Daniel Dale
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene delivers a speech on the House floor on Thursday.
(House TV)
In a speech on the House floor on Thursday, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia repeated the common Republican claim that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had rejected a National Guard presence for January 6. There is no evidence that the Speaker, who has no authority over the activation of the District of Columbia National Guard, was involved in any such rejection; her office has repeatedly said she wasn’t even consulted.
But Greene went even further than her colleagues – also casting blame on the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. Greene claimed that Schumer also turned down the Guard and was also responsible for the failure to protect the Capitol on the day of the riot.
Facts First: Greene’s claim about Schumer is false. Schumer, now the Senate Majority Leader, was Senate Minority Leader at the time of the riot on January 6, 2021; Republican Mitch McConnell, whom Greene did not blame in her Thursday speech, was head of the majority. And even the Senate Majority Leader does not have any authority over the activation of the DC National Guard. The President of the United States has that authority, along with Department of Defense officials to whom presidential power has been delegated.
Schumer only became Senate Majority Leader two weeks after January 6, when two Democrats who won runoff elections held in Georgia on January 5, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, were sworn in as senators and the Democrats took narrow control of the chamber.
Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman told CNN on Thursday that, during the riot, Schumer asked the Secretary of the Army to approve National Guard assistance at the Capitol. An official timeline released by the Department of Defense confirms that Schumer spoke to the secretary that afternoon.
Greene’s office did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment CNN sent around 3:40 pm.
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Biden and Trump both plan to watch the hearing
From CNN's Kaitlan Collins
President Biden, who previewed the first prime-time hearing of the committee investigating Jan. 6, plans to watch as much as he can in between meetings and a scheduled dinner with world leaders in Los Angeles, sources familiar with his plan say.
Biden believes the committee has woven together the events of that day — including what happened before, during and after — in a way that will be informative for Americans.
As for former President Trump, who watched those events unfold from the Oval Office on Jan. 6, 2021, will also be keeping an eye on the hearings, one person says. Trump, who is often impressed but agitated by well-produced events, has urged allies to flood the airwaves with attacks on the committee.
Trump won’t be the only one paying attention. Several former members of his West Wing staff say they also plan to watch the hearing to see if it tells a compelling narrative, or falls flat.
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The Jan. 6 committee was tweaking plan for tonight's hearing up until the last minute, sources say
From CNN's Ryan Nobles
A large projection screen is seen before Thursday night's hearing.
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
The Jan. 6 select committee held final rehearsals for tonight’s prime-time hearing today and sources say members and staff were making final tweaks and adjustments to their plan right up until the last minute.
While the committee had the lion’s share of their plan in place, they were still making final decisions about the order of their presentation, even deciding which videos to share tonight and which to save for later hearings.
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chair, and GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee vice chair, are expected to play a starring role, with other members of the committee not contributing much to tonight’s hearing. They instead are being tasked with running separate hearings on later dates.
The hearing will rely heavily on a multimedia presentation to set the stage for what the investigation has uncovered up until this point, and tee up more in depth hearings throughout the month of June.
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2 witnesses who interacted directly with the Proud Boys during the Capitol riot will testify tonight
From CNN's Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer and Zachary Cohen
Nick Quested will testify during the Jan. 6 House select committee hearing about his experience filming members of the Proud Boys during the riot at the Capitol.
(Mike Pont/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
The Jan. 6 House select committee says its hearing tonight will include testimony from two witnesses who interacted directly with the Proud Boys during the riot at the Capitol.
The panel announced earlier this week that it will call documentarian Nick Quested to testify about his experience filming members of the Proud Boys in the week leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, and Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured after she was part of an altercation involving members of the Proud Boys while defending the US Capitol.
Quested has already been deposed by the committee and Justice Department officials about his experience and has provided the committee and the department with video footage from the filming of his documentary.
He was embedded with the Proud Boys for a significant period of time leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, and is considered a firsthand fact witness because of the amount of time he spent with the group.
Some background: Leaders of the Proud Boys were involved in some of the early clashes that overpowered police lines and breached the Capitol. The group has been a focus of the Justice Department for months, and on Monday the agency charged the head of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, and four other leaders with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
These are the most aggressive charges brought by the Justice Department against the Proud Boys, and the first allegations by prosecutors that the group tried to forcibly oppose the presidential transfer of power.
Tarrio and his co-defendants previously pleaded not guilty to an earlier slate of charges.
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Fact check: McCarthy misleads about Republican representation on Jan. 6 committee
From CNN's Daniel Dale
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks during Thursday's news conference on Capitol Hill.
(Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
During his weekly news conference on Thursday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy slammed the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Among other criticisms, McCarthy said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “rejected the minority’s picks to be on the committee.” He continued moments later, “You reject the minority to have a say in the committee.”
After McCarthy specified that Pelosi had rejected Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan, he alleged that while she rejected “these qualified Republicans, she appointed radical Democrats.”
Facts First: McCarthy’s claims are misleading, leaving out critical context. Pelosi did reject two of McCarthy’s five proposed Republican committee members, Banks and Jordan, on account of concerns about their “statements made and actions taken” – but she accepted McCarthy’s three other Republican picks, and she also gave McCarthy a chance to suggest another two members to replace Banks and Jordan. Instead, McCarthy decided to withdraw the three members Pelosi had accepted. Even after he did so, the Republicans’ House minority still had “a say” on the committee: Reps. Liz Cheney, who had already been selected by Pelosi before McCarthy pulled out his own selections, and Adam Kinzinger, whom Pelosi selected later. Both Cheney and Kinzinger are outspoken Trump critics who have been at odds with many of their GOP colleagues, but they are elected Republicans nonetheless.
In addition, all of these developments came after McCarthy had rejected a proposal for a bipartisan commission that would have given equal membership and subpoena power to Democrats and Republicans. After the commission proposal failed in the Senate because of Republican opposition (only six Republicans voted in favor), the House created the Democratic-controlled select committee.
– CNN’s Annie Grayer contributed to this post.
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Biden: Americans will be "seeing for the first time" details of Jan. 6 riot during tonight's hearing
From CNN's Allie Malloy
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting at the Summit of the Americas on Thursday.
(Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press/AP)
Ahead of the House select committee’s Jan. 6 hearing, President Biden said many Americans will be “seeing for the first time” details that occurred during the insurrection at the Capitol.
The President said the actions taken on that day were a “flagrant violation of the Constitution” and that the committee’s hearing is going to “occupy” the country.
Biden added he would not make a “judgment” on who was involved.
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Here's a timeline of how the Jan. 6 insurrection unfolded
From CNN’s Ted Barrett, Manu Raju and Peter Nickeas
Supporters loyal to then-President Donald Trump break through a police barrier at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
(Julio Cortez/AP)
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol is set to lay out its findings during a public hearing tonight. When and how the events occurred that day have been a key part of their probe.
Supporters of then-President Trump breached the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, engulfing the building in chaos after Trump urged his supporters to protest against the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes to certify President Biden’s win.
Here’s how key events unfolded throughout the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump’s speech:
At 1:10 p.m. ET, while Congress began the process of affirming then-President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win, Trump encouraged his supporters to protest at the US Capitol. Despite promising he would join them, Trump retreated to the White House in his SUV and watched on television as the violence unfolded on Capitol Hill.
Shortly after 1 p.m. ET, hundreds of pro-Trump protesters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol, where they tussled with officers in full riot gear, some calling the officers “traitors” for doing their jobs.
About 90 minutes later, police said demonstrators got into the building and the doors to the House and Senate were being locked. Shortly after, the House floor was evacuated by police. Then-Vice President Mike Pence was also evacuated from the chamber, he was to perform his role in the counting of electoral votes.
An armed standoff took place at the House front door as of 3 p.m. ET, and police officers had their guns drawn at someone who was trying to breach it. A Trump supporter was also pictured standing at the Senate dais earlier in the afternoon.
The Senate floor was cleared of rioters as of 3:30 p.m. ET, and an officer told CNN that they had successfully squeezed them away from the Senate wing of the building and towards the Rotunda, and they were removing them out of the East and West doors of the Capitol.
The US Capitol Police worked to secure the second floor of the Capitol first, and were seen just before 5 p.m. ET pushing demonstrators off the steps on the east side of the building.
With about 30 minutes to go before Washington, DC’s 6 p.m. ET curfew, Washington police amassed in a long line to push the mob back from the Capitol grounds. It took until roughly 5:40 p.m. ET for the building to once again be secured, according to the sergeant-at-arms.
Lawmakers began returning to the Capitol after the building was secured and made it clear that they intended to resume their intended business — namely, confirming Biden’s win over Trump by counting the votes in the Electoral College.
Proceedings resumed at about 8 p.m. ET with Pence — who never left the Capitol, according to his press secretary — bringing the Senate session back into order.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement earlier on the evening of Jan. 6 that congressional leadership wanted to continue with the joint session that night.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor that the “United States Senate will not be intimidated. We will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs or threats.”
It took until deep in the early hours of Thursday morning (Jan. 7, 2021), but Congress eventually counted and certified Biden’s election win.
Fact check: Trump attacks the Jan. 6 committee with his usual lie about the 2020 election
From CNN's Daniel Dale
Former President Donald Trump speaks in Casper, Wyoming, last month.
(Chet Strange/Getty Images)
In a Thursday post on his social media platform, Truth Social, former President Donald Trump attacked the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol – by repeating his usual lie about the 2020 election.
Trump complained that the committee had not studied “the reason” that a large number of people had gone to Washington that day. He said the presence of these people “was about an Election that was Rigged and Stolen, and a Country that was about to go to HELL.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim about the 2020 election is, again, a lie. The election wasn’t rigged and wasn’t stolen. Joe Biden won fair and square. There was a tiny smattering of voter fraud that was nowhere near widespread enough to have changed the outcome in any state, let alone to have reversed Biden’s 306-232 victory in the Electoral College.
Trump made the same false claim about the election being “stolen” in the January 6 speech he delivered in Washington before the riot; in the video message later that day in which he urged supporters to leave the Capitol; and on numerous other occasions before and since.
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Jan. 6 committee chair: "The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over"
From CNN's Clare Foran
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, will issue a stark warning to the American public tonight, saying, “the conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over,” according to an excerpt of the chairman’s opening statement released by the committee.
“January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk,” the excerpt reads.
“We must confront the truth with candor, resolve, and determination. We need to show that we are worthy of the gifts that are the birthright of every American,” he adds.
The hearing is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET.
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Here's a breakdown of what the panel — and the press — unearthed about Trump's role in the Jan. 6 riot
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
Former President Donald Trump supporters participate in a rally in Washington, DC, near the White House on January 6, 2021.
(John Minchillo/AP/File)
With public hearings kicking off today, the House select committee investigating January 6 is zeroing in on former President Donald Trump, and is preparing to use its platform to argue that he was responsible for grave abuses of power that nearly upended US democracy.
Here’s a breakdown of what the panel — and the press — unearthed about Trump’s leadership role in the anti-democratic scheme, and how it all fits into the ongoing criminal investigations:
Trump’s election subversion before Jan. 6, 2021: The committee has interviewed officials from Michigan and Georgia, among other states, where Trump unsuccessfully tried to cajole local officials into nullifying Biden’s votes and name him the winner. Trump also tried to enlist senior Justice Department officials to assist with these efforts.
Lawmakers have also dug into the “fake electors” plot, which was led by Trump campaign officials and was an attempt to undermine the Electoral College process in December 2020.
Congressional investigators have obtained hundreds of emails from right-wing attorney John Eastman, who directly advised Trump to pursue legally dubious methods to stay in office. This included a plan for then-Vice President Mike Pence to throw the election to Trump on January 6 while presiding over a joint session of Congress to certify Biden’s Electoral College victory.
In another victory for the committee, the judge in Eastman’s civil case said Tuesday that the potentially criminal scheme between Trump and Eastman to obstruct the Electoral College proceedings was formed in December 2020, weeks earlier than previously established. The ruling paves the way for the panel to get additional emails that Eastman tried to keep secret.
Trump and his allies pushed ahead with these efforts, and promoted the “Big Lie”, even after he was told by top officials, including then-Attorney General Bill Barr, that the election results were legitimate and that he lost. Even Eastman acknowledged in emails at the time that his plans were not legally sound. Lawmakers have said this suggests Trump had a corrupt state of mind.
Trump, Eastman and the other GOP figures who were involved have denied wrongdoing. Spokespeople for Trump did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Trump’s dereliction of duty during the Capitol riot: Once Trump failed to stop states from certifying their results, he started focusing on Jan. 6, 2021 as his last chance to cling to power. The facts of that tragic day are well-known, but the panel is going to attempt to drive home a clear narrative from the chaos: Trump knew his supporters could get violent, but egged them on anyway, and was derelict when he didn’t do try to stop the violence.
“They were warned that January 6th could, and likely would, turn violent,” Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chairwoman of the panel, said at a committee hearing in March.
Pence’s staffers were so concerned before Jan. 6, 2021 that they warned the US Secret Service that Trump might stoke violence against him, because he wasn’t willing to overturn the election, according to The New York Times. (The Secret Service has since claimed it has “no knowledge” of that conversation happening.) Some of Pence’s senior advisers, who have cooperated with the committee’s inquiry, could potentially be called as witnesses during the public hearings.
Prominent Republican officials and right-wing media figures knew in real-time that only Trump could call off the mob and bring an end to the deadly carnage at the Capitol, according to text messages that these Trump allies sent to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows on January 6. CNN obtained his texts after he partially complied with a subpoena to turn over the messages.
Despite those pleas, according to committee members, Trump spent 187 minutes during the riot watching TV and working the phones, seemingly pleased with how his supporters were fighting for him at the Capitol. He reacted approvingly when he learned that some of the rioters were chanting “hang Mike Pence,” according to testimony that the panel got from a Meadows aide.
To zero in on these crucial hours inside the White House, the panel interviewed people who were there with Trump that day, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Clips of their videotaped depositions will likely be played at the public hearings for the first time — which are just some of the never-before-seen details that lawmakers have teased.
The committee will lay out its findings today. Here are the 9 lawmakers on the panel.
From CNN's Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles
Top row from left, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, Rep. Elaine Luria, and Rep. Pete Aguilar. Bottom row from left, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Stephanie Murphy, vice chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney, and Rep. Adam Schiff.
(AP)
Members of the House select committee have been investigating what happened before, after and during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — and now they will present what they discovered to the public.
The committee is holding its first prime-time public hearing tonight and is expected to give an overview of their findings from the past year.
The committee is made up of 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans. It was formed after efforts to create an independent 9/11-style commission failed.
Rep. Liz Cheney is one of two Republicans on the panel appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all five of his selections because Pelosi would not accept two of his picks. In July 2021, Pelosi invited GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to join the committee, making him the second GOP lawmaker to sit on the committee.
Here’s who is on the panel — and key things to know about them:
Democrats:
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman: Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, is the chairman of the House select committee. Thompson also serves as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, the first ever Democrat to hold the position. As chairman of the Homeland Security panel, Thompson introduced and oversaw the House’s passage of the legislative recommendations after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Thompson is a civil rights pioneer who started his political career by registering fellow African Americans to vote in the segregated South. His first political victory was being elected the first Black mayor of his hometown of Bolton, Mississippi. He is the only Democrat serving in Mississippi’s delegation. Thompson views the work of the Jan. 6 committee in the same vein as his work in the civil rights struggle.
Rep. Pete Aguilar: Aguilar is a Democrat from Southern California. Before coming to Congress, he served as the mayor of Redlands, California. Aguilar is considered a rising star in the House Democratic Caucus. As vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus he is the highest-ranking Latino member in congressional leadership. In addition to his role on the Jan. 6 committee, Aguilar has several high-profile committee assignments. He also is a member of the committees on Appropriations and House Administration. Aguilar believes the committee’s most important job is creating a full, comprehensive record of what led to the violence of Jan. 6, 2021.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren: Lofgren is a Democrat from California who served as an impeachment manager in the first impeachment trial against Trump. Lofgren is also chair of the Committee on House Administration. She was first elected to Congress in 1994 and also served as a staffer on Capitol Hill for eight years. Lofgren has a background as an immigration lawyer and has made reforming immigration law a key part of her portfolio as a member of Congress. She also represents a big part of the Silicon Valley and as a result has had a heavy focus on tech related issues. She is a long-time ally and friend to Pelosi. The duo has served in the California Congressional delegation together for close to three decades and both represent different parts of the bay area in Northern California.
Rep. Elaine Luria: Luria is a Democrat from the Virginia Beach area who represents a community with a significant number of constituents connected to the military. Luria is a Navy Veteran. She served 20 years as an officer on Navy ships, retiring as a commander. She has attributed her military background as part of her motivation for serving on the Jan. 6 committee and getting to the bottom of what happened on that day. Of the nine members of the committee, Luria is facing the toughest general election in the fall midterms.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy: Murphy is a Democrat from Florida and is the first Vietnamese American woman elected to Congress. Before serving in Congress, Murphy was a national security specialist in the office of the US Secretary of Defense. Murphy said the challenge for committee members is to translate the mountains of information learned through the investigation into a digestible narrative for the American people. Murphy announced in December 2021 that she would not be seeking reelection.
Rep. Jamie Raskin: Raskin is a Democrat from Maryland who previously served as the lead impeachment manager for Democrats during Trump’s second impeachment trial. In the days before the Capitol insurrection, Raskin announced the death by suicide of his 25-year-old son, Tommy, on New Years Eve 2020. Raskin reflected on the tragic loss of his son, and his experience living through the attack on the Capitol, in his book “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy.” Raskin said that becoming the lead House impeachment manager last year served as a “lifeline” in the aftermath of his son’s death, describing to David Axelrod on “The Axe Files” podcast how Pelosi asked him to lead the second impeachment managers.
Rep. Adam Schiff: Schiff is a Democrat from California and also serves as the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He was the lead impeachment manager representing Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment trial. “January 6 will be remembered as one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. Yet, more than a year later, the threat to our democracy is as grave as ever. January 6 was not a day in isolation, but the violent culmination of multiple efforts to overturn the last presidential election and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our history,” Schiff said in a statement to CNN.
Republicans
Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chairwoman: Cheney, who represents Wyoming, serves as the vice chairwoman on the committee. Cheney has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach him. House Republicans have punished her for her public opposition to Trump by removing her as their party’s conference chairwoman in May of last year and she faces a Trump-endorsed challenger in the GOP primary in her reelection bid. That primary is in August. Cheney told CBS in an interview that aired over the weekend that she believes the January 6 attack was a conspiracy, saying when asked, “I do. It is extremely broad. It’s extremely well organized. It’s really chilling.” She has even gone as far to say that Trump’s inaction to intervene as the attack unfolded was a “dereliction of duty.”
Adam Kinzinger: Kinzinger of Illinois broke with his party by accepting the appointment from Pelosi. Kinzinger, once thought to have a bright future in GOP politics, has taken heavy criticism from his colleagues because of his criticism of Trump. He has placed much of the blame of inciting the violence that day on Trump and his allies. Kinzinger is one of 10 Republicans who voted twice to impeach Trump after the Capitol insurrection. He also voted for the bipartisan independent commission to investigate the riot. His willingness to take on Trump led to the former President personally promising to back a primary opponent. Instead of facing the prospect of a Trump back challenge, he chose to retire from Congress at the end of his current term.
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Just hours before start of Jan. 6 hearing, 3 Proud Boys pleaded not guilty to a seditious conspiracy charge
From CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio pleaded not guilty to the new charge of seditious conspiracy.
Three Proud Boys leaders pleaded not guilty to the new charge of seditious conspiracy during a motions hearing Thursday.
Enrique Tarrio, Dominic Pezzola and Joseph Biggs, three of the five Proud Boys named in the superseding indictment, entered the plea just hours before the Jan. 6 committee is set to hold their first primetime hearing, which will focus in part on the right-wing group.
The other two defendants, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean, were not present at the hearing and have not entered a formal plea.
The group is scheduled to go to trial in August.
These are the most aggressive charges brought by the Justice Department against the Proud Boys and are the first allegations by prosecutors that the group tried to oppose by force the presidential transfer of power.
The Justice Department said that the House select committee investigating the events on Jan. 6, 2021, will release all 1,000 witness transcripts from their investigation in early September, coinciding with the trial of these 5 defendants.
Prosecutor Jason McCullough said that the department has asked the committee to give copies of the transcripts to the five Proud Boy defendants before the August trial begins, but that those requests have so far been denied.
“We’re all going to have to think about the fact that this committee exists, the fact that they are holding these public hearings,” said federal Judge Timothy Kelly.
Kelly added he did not believe the trial needed to be postponed, and that what the committee does “is beyond the power of anyone around our table here today.”
“Mixing politics and justice is extremely dangerous,” said defense lawyer Nick Smith, who represents Ethan Nordean. “We have to run from it like fire.”
But Kelly rejected the idea, calling the idea of collusion between the Justice Department and House Select committee “unreasonable.”
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Ex-Meadows aide replaces lawyer, signaling willingness to continue cooperating with House Jan. 6 committee
From CNN's Jim Acosta and Zachary Cohen
(White House via CNU)
The American people may soon hear directly from a key witness in the House January 6 select committee’s investigation who can speak to former President Donald Trump’s approving reaction to the US Capitol riot — live testimony that could be the most important moment of the panel’s upcoming public hearings.
Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, is now likely to testify in person during one of the committee’s upcoming hearings after she replaced her lawyer who had significant links to the former President, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The committee has previously said it considers Hutchinson a key witness in its ongoing investigation, and she has testified several times behind closed doors.
Hutchinson told the January 6 committee that Trump had suggested to Meadows he approved of the “hang Mike Pence” chants from rioters who stormed the US Capitol, CNN has reported.
She also testified that Trump complained about his then-vice president being hustled to safety while Trump supporters breached the Capitol, the sources told CNN.
Hutchinson has answered the panel’s questions during three separate sessions and went over “new ground” with the committee last month, though it was not immediately clear what was discussed during that deposition.
Hutchinson was not willing to risk taking a contempt of Congress charge to impede the probe and the change in representation is a sign she is more willing to cooperate with the committee, the source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Her former boss, Meadows, was referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal contempt charges, but the DOJ ultimately decided not to pursue such a case.
Hutchinson was initially represented by Stefan Passantino, an attorney with significant links to people in Trump’s orbit.
She fired Passantino, the source said, and is now represented by Jody Hunt of Alston Bird.
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FBI arrests Michigan gubernatorial candidate on charges related to involvement in the Jan. 6 riot
From CNN's Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz
Michigan gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley speaks to supporters of former President Donald Trump who had gathered outside the Michigan State Capitol in February to demand a forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election.
(Emily Elconin/Reuters/File)
A GOP Michigan gubernatorial candidate, Ryan Kelley, was arrested Thursday on misdemeanor charges related to his involvement in the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, according to the Justice Department.
“Ryan Kelley, 40, of Allendale, Michigan, was arrested this morning on misdemeanor charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol breach. He was arrested in Allendale. Mr. Kelley is to make his initial appearance this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan,” said Bill Miller, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s office in the District of Columbia.
The Detroit FBI field office confirmed Kelley’s arrest and said his home was searched on Thursday morning.
“I can confirm FBI agents from Grand Rapids office executed an arrest and search warrant at Mr. Kelley’s residence in Allendale, MI. At this time, I cannot provide any information on the nature of the charges against Mr. Kelley, although I expect additional information to be forthcoming,” Mara Schneider, a public affairs officer with the FBI’s Detroit’s office, said in a written statement.
Georgia election officials expected to testify at Jan. 6 hearing later this month
From CNN's Sara Murray
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger talks with reporters as he arrives for an election night party in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, last month.
(Ben Gray/AP)
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his deputy Gabe Sterling were both subpoenaed and are expected to testify at a hearing later this month before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The public hearings are set to spotlight the work of the committee’s 10-month investigation and reveal new details on how efforts to overturn the 2020 election culminated in an attack on the US Capitol. The slate of Georgia witnesses could offer a glimpse into the blowback state officials faced as they rebuffed attempts to overturn the election results.
Raffensperger’s profile grew after the 2020 election when he resisted former President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Raffensperger to “find” the votes necessary for Trump to win Georgia in an infamous January 2021 phone call.
The Georgia Republican has already spoken privately with the committee about his experience in addition to testifying before a special grand jury in a criminal probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State.
Raffensperger and Sterling’s plans to testify publicly before the Jan. 6 committee were previously reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election and his allies pursued various schemes to try to upend the results, Raffensperger, Raffensperger’s wife and other Georgia officials faced a barrage of threats.
In December 2020, Sterling publicly pleaded for Trump to condemn the harassment that officials and election workers had been facing.
“Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence,” Sterling said at the time, addressing Trump. “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed, and it’s not right.”
A month later rioters stormed the US Capitol.
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The Justice Department has arrested more than 840 people in connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack
From CNN's Holmes Lybrand
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
(Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
A day before the Jan. 6 House select committee was set to hold their first prime-time, public hearing, the Justice Department released an update on the progress of their investigation into the Capitol attack.
Seventeen months after the riot, the Justice Department has arrested over 840 individuals, charging roughly 255 with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers that day – 90 of whom are charged with using a weapon or causing serious injury to an officer.
According to the Justice Department, over 50 defendants have been charged with conspiracy, ranging from conspiring to obstruct a congressional proceeding to conspiring to obstruct law enforcement.
Sixteen individuals – members of the far-right groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers – have been charged with seditious conspiracy for their alleged actions that day, three of whom have pleaded guilty to the charge.
In April, the estimated cost of damage done to the Capitol building and grounds during the riot increased from $1.5 million to $2.7 million, an amount slowly being paid for in part by convicted rioters who have agreed to pay restitution for the damage as part of plea agreements with the government.
So far, however, the total number of restitution and fines judges have ordered Jan. 6, 2021 rioters to pay is still under $240,000, according to CNN’s tally.
Roughly 305 rioters have pleaded guilty, 59 of whom have pleaded to felony charges. Of the seven Jan. 6 riot cases that have gone to trial, all but one has been found guilty.
But the investigation is not close to being over. The Justice Department is still looking for over 350 individuals who they say “committed violent acts on Capitol grounds.”
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Why chairing the Jan. 6 investigation is a full circle moment for Rep. Bennie Thompson
From CNN's Gloria Borger
Chairman Bennie Thompson, center, flanked by vice chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney, right, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, left, speaks as the House selects committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol meets to vote on contempt charges against former President Donald Trumps advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino on Capitol Hill on March 28.
(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
For Bennie Thompson, the invasion of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was a significant moment of déjà vu. From his perch in the House gallery above the chamber that day, he couldn’t quite tell what was going on, until his wife phoned him to let him know what was unfolding on television. Then the Capitol Police came and instructed him — and other members — to crouch, and take off their congressional lapel pins, so they would not become targets for the intruders.
Thompson refused.
“People I know fought and died in this country for me to have the right to represent them and for them to have the right to vote,” Thompson told CNN. “I’m not going to let any insurrectionist, rioter, crazy person come here and take this pin.”
As a congressman from Mississippi, Thompson has been wearing a pin for 13 terms. He’s the only Democrat and the only Black member of the Mississippi congressional delegation — representing one of the poorest districts in the country. He’s also the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and for the past year, chairman of the January 6th committee – a job unlike any other in American history.
For Thompson, leading the Congressional investigation into the attack on the US Capitol comes with an unprecedented mandate of reminding voters how much was almost lost that day. “Our democracy is at stake,” Thompson says. “We have to defend our democracy. We have to defend our government.”
For Thompson, 74, chairing the Jan. 6 committee is also about how his own personal history has come full circle.
As a product of the Jim Crow south, Thompson sees the right to vote — and be counted accurately in a free and fair election — as his life’s work.
Thompson’s congressional colleagues understand the history. “It’s an extraordinary arc in a political career,” says Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a January 6 committee member. “He had to struggle for representation at the local level, at the county level, at the federal level.”
Indeed, as Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, another January 6 committee member, points out, “It wasn’t possible in his state for a person of color to be elected until voting rights legislation.”
Reuben Anderson, a former Mississippi State Supreme Court Justice, agrees.
“So many Mississippians lost their lives over a the right to vote. That sticks with you for awhile,” he said.
Or a lifetime.
In Washington, Thompson is “Mr. Chairman,” but in his hometown of Bolton, Mississippi, he’s still Bennie. Home every weekend, back to the same small town where he ran as mayor in the 1970s, Bennie is a regular presence in his district. His good friend, NAACP Chair Derrick Johnson, said Thompson’s home office is like a town living room.
The Jan. 6 hearings will be the panel's first chance to show the public what they've learned in their probe
From CNN's Marshall Cohen
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on May 28 in Casper, Wyoming.
(Chet Strange/Getty Images)
The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 is zeroing in on former President Donald Trump, and is preparing to use its platform to argue that he was responsible for grave abuses of power that nearly upended US democracy.
The committee’s central mission has been to uncover the full scope of Trump’s unprecedented attempt to stop the transfer of power to President Biden. This includes Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 defeat by pressuring state and federal officials, and what committee members say was his “dereliction of duty” on January 6 while his supporters ransacked the US Capitol.
Lawmakers will try to convict Trump in the court of public opinion — which is all they can do, because it’s not within their powers to actually indict Trump. But they have an emerging legal foundation to claim that Trump broke the law, thanks to a landmark court ruling from a federal judge who said it was “more likely than not” that Trump committed crimes regarding January 6.
These highly choreographed hearings will be the panel’s first opportunity to show the public what they’ve learned from more than 1,000 witness interviews and 135,000 documents. An avalanche of new information about January 6 has come to light since Trump’s impeachment trial in February 2021, where he was acquitted of one count of “incitement of insurrection.”
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Texts to Trump's former chief of staff are likely to come up in the Jan. 6 hearings. Here's what they say.
From CNN's Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb and Elizabeth Stuart
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks with reporters outside the White House in 2020.
(Patrick Semansky/AP/File)
Within minutes of the US Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, messages began pouring into the cell phone of then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Among those texting were Republican members of Congress, former members of the Trump administration, GOP activists, Fox personalities — even the President’s son.
CNN obtained the 2,319 text messages that Meadows selectively handed over in December before he stopped cooperating with the investigation. Meadows withheld more than 1,000 messages, claiming executive privilege, according to the committee.
Their texts all carried the same urgent plea: President Donald Trump needed to immediately denounce the violence and tell the mob to go home.
One of the key questions the Jan. 6 House committee is expected to raise in its June hearings is why Trump failed to publicly condemn the attack for hours, and whether that failure is proof of “dereliction of duty” and evidence that Trump tried to obstruct Congress’ certification of the election.
The Meadows texts show that even those closest to the former President believed he had the power to stop the violence in real time.
Why these are important to the committee: The Meadows text logs present a dramatic timeline of how friends, colleagues and Republican allies were pleading for help on January 6, according to a source familiar with the committee’s investigation
Rioters stormed police barriers around the Capitol just after 1 p.m. that day. The House and Senate fled their chambers around 2:20 p.m. Yet it took Trump until 4:17 p.m. to release a video on Twitter telling the rioters to go home.
The hearings are expected to focus on the gap of 187 minutes it took Trump to release the video — as well as highlight some of the most notable texts that Meadows received and sent that day.
The logs are not a complete record of Meadows’ texts — he withheld more than 1,000 messages, claiming executive privilege, according to the committee. But the messages Meadows did hand over show his responses were often terse and emotionless, if he replied at all.
Read more about the timeline laid out in the text messages here.
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A former ABC News executive is working with the House committee to help produce hearings
From CNN's Ryan Nobles, Zachary Cohen and Annie Grayer
James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, will help produce the House select committee's upcoming hearings.
(Ilya S. Savenok/IWMF/Getty Images)
The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol is working with a former ABC News television executive to help produce their upcoming hearings, according to a source familiar with the committee’s plans.
James Goldston — the former president of ABC News who also served as a producer for some of the network’s most successful news programs like “20/20,” “Nightline” and “Good Morning America” — is helping the committee with the planning of the hearings and their presentation.
The committee has hopes of putting on hearings that don’t look like traditional congressional proceedings, and instead are multimedia presentations that weave a narrative outlining the committee’s findings. Their goal is to demonstrate how former President Donald Trump and his allies peddled a false narrative about the election that laid the groundwork for the riot at the Capitol.
Axios was the first to report of Goldston’s role with the committee. A spokesperson for the committee told CNN they do not comment on personnel decisions.
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Wives and partner of officers who died in Jan. 6 attack are expected to attend first committee hearing
From CNN's Whitney Wild, Jessica Schneider and Jamie Gangel
Three women — the wives and long-time partner of the officers who died after responding to the Capitol attack — are expected to attend the first Jan. 6 committee hearing Thursday. Erin Smith, Sandra Garza and Serena Liebengood will be at the presentation in person, accompanied by Capitol police officers Harry Dunn, Daniel Hodges and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell.
Erin Smith’s attorney confirmed she plans to attend, but does not plan to speak. Smith’s husband Jeffrey Smith was an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department. Officer Smith died nine days after responding to the Capitol attack. Video evidence showed Officer Smith was assaulted by the mob and hit in the head with a metal pole on Jan. 6, 2021. His death by suicide was declared a line of duty death in early March of this year.
Serena Liebengood is still fighting to have her husband’s death ruled in the line of duty. Capitol Police officer Howie Liebengood died by suicide in the days after Jan. 6. Serena Liebengood says he assisted with riot control during the attack and then worked long shifts in the days that followed.
In a letter to Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat from Virginia, soon after his death in 2021 urging her husband’s death be declared in the line of duty, Serena Liebengood wrote: “Although he was severely sleep-deprived, he remained on duty — as he was directed — practically around the clock from January 6th through the 9th. On the evening of the 9th, he took his life at our home.”
Brian Sicknick, a US Capitol Police officer who died after the Jan. 6 insurrection, and his longtime partner, Sandra Garza.
(Courtesy Sandra Garza)
Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes one day after he confronted rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a ruling from DC’s chief medical examiner. His longtime partner Sandra Garza wrote an op-ed for CNN last June blasting Republican lawmakers who refused to acknowledge the gravity of the Capitol attack.
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What to expect from the Jan. 6 hearings
From CNN's Paul LeBlanc
Chairman Bennie Thompson makes remarks during a House select committee meeting on December 1, 2021.
(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)
More than 500 days removed from the violent attack on the US Capitol, the committee investigating it is ready to show its work.
The House select committee will hold the first of several public hearings on Thursday.
Sources told CNN this hearing will be a broad overview of the panel’s 10-month investigation and set the stage for subsequent hearings, which are expected to cover certain topics or themes.
While the setup of the hearings has been a work in progress and evolving, sources note, the presentations will likely feature video clips from Jan. 6, as well as some of the roughly 1,000 interviews the committee has conducted behind closed doors.
Committee members have teased that the hearings could be focused on former President Donald Trump’s direct role in undermining the election results.
Broadly, the panel has been working toward a thesis that Trump’s obsession with the election loss and his peddling of false claims about the results is what laid the groundwork for the violent and deadly riot at the Capitol.
Will there be new information?
Yes, here’s what an advisory from the committee said last week:
What witnesses might appear?
CNN has learned that two people directly tied to former Vice President Mike Pence are among those who have received invitations to appear. Former Pence chief counsel Greg Jacob and former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig have received outreach from the committee about their possible testimony.
In addition, CNN has also learned former Pence chief of staff Marc Short is expected to be called to testify.
All three men have already been interviewed privately by committee investigators. In some cases, their testimony has already been used by the committee as part of court filings and subpoena requests of other potential witnesses in their investigation.
The Jan. 6 House select committee announced that Thursday’s hearing will include testimony from two witnesses who interacted directly with the Proud Boys during the riot at the Capitol.
How will these hearings compare to Trump’s impeachment proceedings?
One source close to the committee told CNN that the panel has drawn on experiences from Trump’s two impeachment proceedings. Those hearings have served as a model of both what to do and not to do.
A key difference to typical committee proceedings is that the Jan. 6 hearings will not feature the voices of prominent Trump supporters in Congress.
The panel’s only two Republican members, Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, are both outspoken critics of Trump.
Committee chair says hearing will show video testimony of those who've been charged for Jan. 6
From CNN's Melanie Zanona and Annie Grayer
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, told reporters some of the videotaped interviews that will be shown tonight will include individuals who have been charged for their actions on the day of the insurrection.
“We will have significant video of some people who’ve been charged, some people who have been convicted, some people who pled guilty,” Thompson said.
Thompson declined to say whether Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who has been charged with seditious conspiracy, would be among those featured.
On Thursday, the committee plans to show previously unseen video of testimony collected during closed depositions that includes interviews with former President Donald Trump’s White House aides, campaign officials and members of his family.
Thompson said it is still “under consideration” and still “a work in progress” whether the committee will show video of interviews from Trump family members tonight such as Ivanka Trump or Jared Kushner.
Thompson continued to be vague about whether Greg Jacob, a top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, would testify as a live witness during the committee’s hearings.
But when asked if the committee has an agreement with Jacob, Thompson added, “I don’t want to say yes, but I know he’s been on the list.”
Thompson said tonight the committee “will systematically go through what we uncovered” and “kind of tease the other hearings in the process.”
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Ahead of the Jan. 6 hearings, Trump has been mobilizing his allies to defend him
From CNN's Melanie Zanona, Zachary Cohen and Ryan Nobles
Then-President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.
(Jacquelyn Martin/AP/File)
Former President Donald Trump has made it clear he is looking for cover from his closest allies around the upcoming public hearings by the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection — and some prominent names in Congress and the Republican Party are answering the call.
Trump’s team has communicated to some of his most loyal acolytes on Capitol Hill that the former President wants people vigorously defending him and pushing back on the select committee while the public hearings play out, according to GOP sources familiar with the request.
Committee members have teased that the hearings could be focused on Trump’s direct role in undermining the election results. The committee has been working toward a thesis that Trump’s obsession with losing the election and his peddling of false claims about the results is what laid the groundwork for the violent and deadly riot at the Capitol.
Trump’s insistence that his allies defend his honor has mobilized Republicans both on and off the Hill into action, with a broad range of plans to protect him. This despite the belief by some Republicans that they should draw attention away from Jan. 6, 2021 and instead continue to beat the drum of the present day economic and cultural issues that have resonated with voters.
In Congress, the targeted response to the hearings will be overseen by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who has been coordinating the response effort with GOP members.
The California Republican is facing added pressure to show his support for Trump after he was caught on tape earlier this year criticizing the former President and some of his GOP colleagues in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol attack.
The main player in keeping Republicans on message will be House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York, who emerged as one of Trump’s loudest defenders during his first impeachment and replaced Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney in Republican leadership. Sources say Stefanik will be tasked with coordinating the party’s messaging response and ensuring key allies and surrogates have talking points.
Two members whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected from serving on the select committee will also play a key part on the messaging front: Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee; and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who had a hand in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
Banks and other Republicans, including Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, have also been working on their own counter investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection that focuses squarely on the security failures from that day. Banks said they are putting the “finishing touches” on a report outlining their findings and expect it to be released in “a matter of weeks,” which could coincide with the tail end of the select committee hearings.
Part of the challenge for Republicans — especially after they decided to boycott the select committee — is that they have little insight into what the investigation has uncovered and what might be revealed in the public hearings, making it harder for them to settle on a precise strategy.
Cheney, one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 panel, says she's confident in the evidence they will present
From CNN's Sarah Fortinsky
Rep. Liz Cheney speaks during a House select committee meeting to investigate the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol on March 28.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee, said she’s confident new evidence from the panel will compel viewers’ attention during the upcoming hearings, adding that former President Donald Trump’s threat to democracy is ongoing.
In a pre-taped interview that aired on CBS Sunday Morning, Cheney said Trump’s rhetoric is “more extreme language, frankly, than the language that caused the attack.”
“We are not in a situation where former president Trump has expressed any sense of remorse about what happened. We are, in fact, in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language, frankly, than the language that caused the attack,” she said.
Cheney also said she believes the Jan. 6 attack was a conspiracy, saying, “It is extremely broad, it’s extremely well organized, it’s really chilling.”
“I have not learned anything that has made me less concerned,” Cheney said, noting specifically what makes her concerned is “how broad this multi-pronged effort was.”
“We are thankfully not at a moment of civil war, but we are certainly at a time of testing. We are absolutely in a moment where we have to make a decision about whether we’re going to put our love of this country above partisanship. And to me, there’s just, there’s no gray area in that question,” she said.
