Trump’s former campaign manager abruptly drops out of 2nd Jan. 6 hearing

The 1/6 panel on the U.S. Capitol riot resumes its hearings Monday with live witnesses, including Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien.

Donald Trump‘s former campaign manager Bill Stepien abruptly pulled out of Monday’s appearance before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, citing a family emergency, the panel said.

Stepien was expected to be a key witness as the panel delves deeper into what it calls the “big lie,” the defeated Republican president’s false claims of voter fraud that fueled his relentless effort to overturn the 2020 election and led a mob of his supporters to lay siege to the U.S. Capitol.

The committee said Stepien’s counsel will appear and make a statement on the record, and it pushed back its start time as lawmakers and staff scrambled for the change of plans.

Monday’s hearing was set to resume with other live witnesses as committee members say they have uncovered enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider an unprecedented criminal indictment against the former president. Stepien was subpoenaed for his public testimony.

Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice-chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., are set to lead the morning hearing after last week’s blockbuster session drew nearly 20 million Americans to see its prime-time findings.

For the past year, the committee has been investigating the most violent attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812 to ensure such an assault never happens again. Lawmakers hope to show that Trump’s effort to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory posed a grave threat to democracy.

Stepien, a longtime Trump ally, oversaw the “conversion” of Trump’s presidential campaign to a “Stop the Steal” effort, according to a subpoena issued by the committee last fall. He is likely to face questions about what those in Trump’s inner circle were telling the president about the election results. Stepien is now a top campaign adviser to the Trump-endorsed House candidate, Harriet Hageman, who is challenging Cheney in the Wyoming Republican primary election.

The committee is also set to hear testimony from Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News political editor closely involved in election night coverage who stood by the decision to declare Arizona as being won by Biden. He wrote about his experiences later in an op-ed and might be asked about Trump’s actions as Fox News declared states Biden won.