The Jan. 6th House select committee will reveal recorded testimony from former Trump officials and family members of the ex-president to display the scope of his involvement in stopping the transfer of power to President Biden in 2020's Presidental election, the Hill reports.
Leading up to these hearings, the panel has emphasized its plans to share “never before seen” footage, including videotaped depositions shared will be those with “Trump White House officials, senior Trump administration officials, and Trump campaign officials.”
These primetime hearings starting tonight at 8 p.m., will be the first time the committee can show the public what they’ve learned from more than 1,000 witness interviews and 135,000 documents.
“We will be revealing new details showing that Jan. 6 was the result of a coordinated, multistep effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden,” a select committee aide said on a call with reporters on the eve of Thursday’s prime-time hearing.
“And indeed, that former President Donald Trump was at the center of that effort,” the aide added.
The committee interviewed officials from Michigan and Georgia, where Trump unsuccessfully attempted to talk local officials into changing election results to tip in his favor. They have also looked into the fake electors’ plot where the Trump campaign tried to interfere in the Electoral College process in December 2021.
“We are going to tell the story of a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election and block the transfer of power,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who serves on the committee, told the Washington Post earlier this week, adding that the committee “has found evidence of concerted planning and premediated activity” related to the events of January 6.
Thursday’s hearing will feature two live speakers; Caroline Edwards, a U.S. Capitol police officer and the first law enforcement member injured by rioters on the West Front plaza, and Nick Quested, a filmmaker who accompanied the Proud Boys and captured those who breached the Capitol building.
“You’re talking about two witnesses who were there at the very initial breach,” the aide said. “We’re going to hear about their experiences from that day — particularly sort of what they heard, what they saw from the rioters.”
“We will remind people what happened on that day. We will bring the American people back to the reality of that violence and remind them just how horrific it was,” the aide added.
Quested accompanied the Proud Boys at pivotal moments, including a January 05 meeting between Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, the head of the far-right Oath Keepers militia. This coincides with Monday’s news of Tarrio and other Proud Boy members facing counts of seditious conspiracy.
There are also specific questions the committee will provide more context for the public to consider.
- What was former President Trump doing at the White House when violent protestors breached the Capitol? Some committee members point to 187 minutes that afternoon where it’s unclear where the ex-president was.
- What groups and super PACS funded the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally, and where did the money go?
- What extremist groups attended and coordinated the Jan. 6th Capitol riots?