The first public hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will include “substantial” new material that has not been seen publicly, according to aides to the committee.
The hearing marks the first time that the committee will share its findings with the public after nearly a year of investigating, with hundreds of witness interviews and thousands of pages of documents received.
The new material will include multimedia elements like video and audio that the committee has obtained over the course of the investigation.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chair of the committee, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair, will be the primary presenters in the first hearing. The two will deliver opening statements, present some of the committee’s findings, and ask questions of the witnesses in attendance.
Aides said the committee is aiming for the first hearing to function as an opening statement that will preview the rest of the hearings and future revelations stemming from the nearly year-long inquiry.
The aides expressed a belief that the power of the information the committee plans to share will draw many Americans to watch the initial hearing and any following hearings, even those not interested in tuning in as of now.
“The facts will speak for themselves,” one senior aide said.
The hearing will feature testimony from two live witnesses: U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and documentary filmmaker Nick Quested. Both will provide further details about what they saw, heard and experienced on the day of the attack.
Edwards was the first law enforcement officer to sustain an injury from the rioters, suffering a concussion that has prevented her from returning to her normal duties.
Quested captured the first moments of violence against Capitol Police and the rest of the chaos on Jan. 6 as he and his crew followed the extremist group the Proud Boys around the Capitol plaza.
The hearing and subsequent hearings will also feature testimony the committee collected over the course of the investigation, including testimony from senior Trump White House, administration and campaign officials, as well as members of the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr., his fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have all met with the committee in recent months.
The committee aides stressed that the investigation is ongoing and did not provide a specific number of public hearings to expect over the coming months, saying the probe and subsequent hearings could continue into the fall. They also said future hearings will have specific themes depending on the content presented.
It is unclear to what degree the committee will discuss the difficulties it has faced in getting testimony from some aides and allies of former President Donald Trump. The committee has voted to hold several Trump aides in contempt of Congress, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, social media director Dan Scavino, former trade adviser Peter Navarro, and former adviser Steve Bannon.
The House referred all four men to the Justice Department for further charges, but the department only charged Bannon and Navarro. Meadows and Scavino engaged in negotiations with the committee on potential cooperation, but neither man ultimately agreed to testify.
The committee is starting the hearings just a few months ahead of the November midterm elections. It is widely assumed that if Republicans retake control of the House early next year, they will disband the committee. The potential of such a move puts the committee’s remaining work on a fast-approaching deadline.
Special coverage of the first hearing will begin at 8 p.m. ET on Cheddar News.
