What to Expect When House Lawmakers Present January 6 Riot Probe Results

On January 6, 2021, supporters of then-US President Donald Trump tried to block certification of presidential election results Trump had dismissed as fraudulent, storming the US Capitol and temporarily dispersing Congress. However, they failed at their goal, and Joe Biden was sworn in under heavy guard several weeks later.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is preparing to go public with the results of nearly a year’s worth of research, with the first public hearings scheduled for next week.

The committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews and sifted through 140,000 documents, although it is still seeking more. Some have been strongly resisted, with several of Trump’s closest figures being found in contempt of Congress for their refusal to cooperate, and a lengthy battle to get Trump’s White House records from the National Archives still playing out in the courts.

The hearings will broadcast live on prime time television beginning on Thursday evening at 8 pm Eastern Time, with networks clearing time for them in their programming.

The panel will present a variety of evidence, ranging from public testimonies by key figures already interviewed by lawmakers in private, and documentary footage by a filmmaker who witnessed the events as they unfolded in Washington, DC.

In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. U.S.

© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana

Using film footage, text messages, guest logs, social media posts, and personal testimonies, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans has aimed to reconstruct not just the events of that chaotic day, but also the nearly two months of preparation and planning for it, going back to November 3, 2020, when the US presidential election was held.

This has included not just figures in Trump’s inner circle, but virtually all Republican leaders, including GOP lawmakers who sided with Trump’s claims the election had been “stolen,” as well as leading conservative figures in radio, television, and online. They have also spoken with clerks, aides, and other staffers who interacted with those figures.

In April, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), one of two Republicans on the committee, said they had accumulated enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Trump.

The first day’s programming will feature live testimony by two witnesses: Caroline Edwards, a US Capitol Police officer who was injured by rioters in the battles outside the legislature on its western plaza, and Nick Quested, a British filmmaker who accompanied the rioters as they breached the building. Quested filmed the right-wing group Proud Boys during the events - a white supremacist group that Canada considers a terrorist organization and which Trump infamously told to “stand back and stand by” in a televised debate with Biden prior to the election.

Sputnik reported on the presence of the Proud Boys and other right-wing and neo-Nazi groups in the insurrection as the events unfolded on January 6, as well as on possible collusion between the rioters and police officers.

Five people died in the assault on the Capitol, including a woman who was shot by a USCP officer outside the House chamber. However, the rioters failed at their goal of capturing the Electoral College election results, and police and US troops soon cleared them from the building. More than 20,000 troops garrisoned Washington, DC, in the aftermath, and Biden was sworn in as US President under unprecedented heavy guard several weeks later.

Since then, the US Department of Justice has vigorously pursued prosecutions of those who participated, charging more than 861 people, 306 of whom entered guilty pleas.

Trump was also impeached in the wake of the insurrection on charges of having encouraged it, but he was acquitted by a minority of senators in a trial held after he left office. Since then, he has continued to push the claim of election fraud, despite no evidence to back up his claims. However, a renewed resistance to Trump has sprung up in the Republican Party, with Trump using his influence to try and force those who sided against him from office, such as Cheney.