Your complete guide to the televised hearings of the Jan. 6 committee
CBC
Promising never-seen video, new audio and testimony, the U.S. congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol begins televised hearings beginning tonight that will attempt to show how the violence erupted that day and how defeated president Donald Trump tried to overturn Joe Biden's election victory.
The panel's year-long investigation into the Capitol attack is meant to demonstrate how America's tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power came close to slipping away, and what that could mean for future elections.
It will reconstruct how Trump refused to concede the 2020 election, spread false claims of voter fraud and orchestrated an unprecedented public and private campaign to remain in power up to and including the day on which vice-president Mike Pence performed his ceremonial role in certifying the election.
On Thursday night, the panel is expected to present wrenching accounts from police who engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the mob, including testimony from U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was seriously injured in the attack. Also appearing Thursday will be documentarian Nick Quested, who filmed the extremist Proud Boys storming the Capitol.
There will be recorded accounts from Trump's senior aides at the White House, the administration and the campaign, as well as members of Trump's family, an aide for the committee who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the Associated Press.
The committee divided the investigation into different subject teams that are expected to provide structure to the hearings.
Likely of most interest is the probe on Trump and those who tried to help him overturn the election, as well as the actions of the Trump administration Justice Department in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6.
One team has looked into the government's response, including the slow deployment of the National Guard and the struggles of Capitol Police on that day.
Other subjects of the investigation include those who organized and financed the rally on Jan. 6, as well as social media disinformation and the current state of domestic extremism in the U.S.
The committee has conducted more than 1,000 depositions and interviews, with most subjects not known. Those who've participated include Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both former White House advisers, and attorney Rudy Giuliani, who in the election aftermath pushed claims of fraud.
Trump's attorney general William Barr also recently met with the committee, according to reports.
The committee has issued at least 99 known subpoenas to compel testimony.
Jeffrey Clark, a senior Justice Department official in Trump's administration, eventually agreed to a deposition after threat of criminal prosecution. According to published reports and the Senate judiciary committee, Clark was more amenable than other Justice officials about plans to install alternate, Republican-friendly slates of electors in some states won by Biden.
Trump has urged former aides to disregard committee subpoenas. The panel has not heard from his last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, his final attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, or current Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
