Jan. 6 committee set to make its case with prime-time hearings

The House select committee that is investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will hold a prime-time televised hearing this week.

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The committee plans to hold public hearings throughout the summer, with the first one set for Thursday. Members have promised they will present evidence that will be new to the public.

Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, D-New Jersey, told CNN Saturday that “disturbing” new evidence would be presented at the hearings.

“This is our democracy. This was the greatest assault on American democracy in my lifetime. The world is watching to see how we respond to this,” Cicilline told CNN.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, told reporters: “My view on the committee has not changed. They’re not conducting a legitimate investigation. It seems as though they just want to go after their political opponents.”

McCarthy was subpoenaed to testify before the committee.

Here is what you need to know about the hearings:

What is the Jan. 6 committee doing?

The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol was created in July 2021 to investigate the events that happened on that day. They are interviewing witnesses, issuing subpoenas and collecting information about the day the Capitol was attacked.

Who is on the committee?

The members of the committee are:

Democrats:

Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi, committee chairman

Rep. Pete Aguilar, California

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California

Rep. Adam Schiff, California

Rep. Stephanie Murray, Florida

Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland

Rep. Elaine Luria, Virginia.

Republicans:

Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming, vice chair of the committee

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Illinois

What has the committee done so far?

Committee members have interviewed more than 900 witnesses in the 10-month investigation and have received nearly 104,000 documents, according to an aide to the panel.

After a court battle that was eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, the National Archives turned over 700 documents from the Trump White House for the committee to review.

What will happen during the hearing?

What will the public see when the hearing is televised? According to the committee, they will “present previously unseen material documenting Jan. 6th, receive witness testimony, preview additional hearings, and provide the American people a summary of its findings about the coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the transfer of power.”

The nine panel members will take part in the hearings, according to CNN. Each is expected to lead at least one presentation.

“There will be a combination of exhibits, staff testimony, and outside witnesses,” Thompson told CNN in early May.

“Some of them will be people that people have not heard from before, and I think their testimony will be on point as to why this investigation was so important.”

Who will be testifying?

The committee said additional details about who will testify will come later this week. The panel has not publicly released a list of who is testifying.

When are the hearings? How to watch.

The first public hearing comes this week, on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. Check local listings to see which networks will carry the hearings.

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