January 6 committee announces surprise hearing over ‘recently obtained evidence’

The select committee’s latest hearing comes just days after the panel received a trove of footage shot by a British documentarian who was given access to former president Donald Trump and his inner circle in the last months of his presidency

Capitol Riot Investigation (AFP)

The House January 6 select committee will hold a surprise hearing on Tuesday 28 July at 1.00 pm, just days after chairman Bennie Thompson said the panel would pause a series of hearings it has held this month while committee members review newly-acquired evidence.

In a press release on Monday, the committee said the hearing’s purpose will be to “present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony,” but the panel did not elaborate on the identity of the witnesses or the nature of the evidence.

On Thursday, Mr Thompson closed the panel’s fifth public session by telling attendees and viewers that the committee’s next hearings would “show how Donald Trump tapped into the threat of violence, how he summoned a mob to Washington, and how after corruption and political pressure failed to keep Donald Trump in office, violence became the last option”.

The Mississippi Democrat said the select committee’s previous four public sessions had “spurred an influx of new information” that investigators and members were then “working to assess,” after which the hearings would resume to present “the most complete information possible”.

Mr Thompson’s decision to delay the planned conclusion of the select committee’s public hearings came on the same day the panel heard closed-door testimony from Alex Holder, a British documentarian who spent months embedded among former president Donald Trump’s inner circle.

Mr Holder also turned over the entirety of the raw footage captured for the documentary, which will be released this summer on Discovery+ under the title Unprecedented.

Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, one of the seven Democrats on the select committee, said on Monday that the documentary footage acquired from Mr Holder — as well as other evidence obtained in recent days — is helping the panel “piece together in a powerful way, what was taking place on the ground and helping us to understand the participation of particular groups that were mobilized for the purposes of this assault on the Capitol”.

According to two sources familiar with the panel’s internal deliberations, committee members were considering recalling Mr Holder for further examination, either in a second private session or a public hearing.

The filmmaker did not respond when The Independent contacted him to ask if he is the witness whose testimony will be presented on Tuesday, and his spokesperson declined comment.

Mr Raskin also failed to respond to a text message inquiring as to the identify of the witness at the last-minute hearing.

The select committee has also been seeking testimony from Pat Cipollone, the conservative attorney who served as Mr Trump’s White House counsel from 2018 through the end of his term in January 2021.

Multiple witnesses have testified that Mr Cipollone and his deputies repeatedly pushed back against schemes floated by Mr Trump and his allies as they tried to find a way to keep him in the White House for a second term against the will of American voters.

At the panel’s 21 June session, select committee vice-chair Liz Cheney said Mr Cipollone and his staff “tried to do what was right” by attempting to put a halt to “a number of President Trump’s plans for January 6” and implored him to give evidence in a public session.

“We think the American people deserve to hear from Mr. Cipollone personally. He should appear before this committee, and we are working to secure his testimony,” she said.

Mr Cipollone did not immediately respond to an email from The Independent asking if he will testify at Tuesday’s session.