WASHINGTON — EDITOR'S NOTE — WUSA9 investigative reporter Jordan Fischer will be blogging and live-tweeting from the hearing room during proceedings of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Follow him on Twitter here.
Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) gaveled in the first prime-time televised meeting of the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday night, when four officers testified about being beaten, crushed and knocked unconscious by a pro-Trump mob that the committee asserted was trying to overturn the 2020 election certification of President Joe Biden.
The hearing — the first of at least six planned in the coming weeks — served as a sort of opening argument for the committee, with an estimated 20 million people watching (not including online viewers).
New information on the next hearing, set for Monday at 10 a.m., was provided by Select Committee aides late Sunday afternoon.
Aides said Monday is focused on the "Big Lie," described as the actions by former President Donald Trump "to ignore the will of the voters, declare victory, spread claims of election fraud and ignore the ruling of courts when rulings didn't go his way."
There will be two panels of witnesses at Monday's hearing, which is expected to last at least two hours.
The aides revealed the American public will hear from witnesses - both in person and via recording - who will outline that Trump was told again and again that he didn't have the numbers to win on Election Night, but then decided to declare victory anyway.
Aides also said the committee plans to lay out how in the days following the election, the president decided to embrace claims that the election was tainted by widespread fraud and pushed that lie.
"We'll show how these lies that were peddled factored into the insurrection at Jan. 6," according to Select Committee aides.
Witnesses who are expected to speak before the committee Monday are:
- William Stepien, former Trump campaign manager
- Chris Stirewalt, former Fox News political editor
- Benjamin Ginsberg, election attorney
- BJay Pak, former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia
- Al Schmidt, former City Commissioner of Philadelphia
It wasn't revealed which witnesses will be in person and which witnesses provided recorded testimony.
Thompson again will lead the committee, and aides said Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) also will factor heavily into Monday's proceedings.
The committee will also dive into how challenges to elections usually go - and outline the differences in how Trump challenged the 2020 race results, plus dive into how the "Big Lie" also brought a financial windfall to the campaign.
"We hope the American people hear the facts and judge for themselves," Select Committee aides said.
On Thursday, Thompson and ranking member Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) told the public what to expect in the hearings to follow.
That will include, they said, evidence of communication between people in former President Donald Trump's orbit and the Proud Boys/Oath Keepers, sworn video depositions from Trump advisers — including his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner — and documents showing Republican members of Congress sought pardons from Trump in the days after the riot.
"Tonight, and over the next few weeks, we're going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day," Thompson said. "But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger."
Thompson and Cheney made it clear Thursday night was just a preview of what's to come. What they laid out was a roadmap that, they said, will connect the violence of the Proud Boys on Jan. 6 with Trump's multi-faceted plan to overturn the election — even as his closest advisers were telling him conclusively that he'd lost and there was no evidence of fraud.
WHEN IS THE NEXT HEARING?
At least five more hearings are planned, including at least one more prime-time hearing. Three hearings next week have already been announced:
- Monday, June 13 at 10 a.m.
- Wednesday, June 15 at 10 a.m.
- Thursday, June 16 at 1 p.m.
WHO IS ON THE COMMITTEE?
- Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), Chairman
- Liz Cheney (Wyoming-R), Vice Chairwoman
- Zoe Lofgren, (D-California)
- Adam Schiff, (D-California)
- Pete Aguilar, (D-California)
- Stephanie Murphy, (D-Florida)
- Jamie Raskin, (D-Maryland)
- Elaine Luria, (D-Virginia)
- Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois)
WHAT TO EXPECT?
"If the committee delivers on what Liz Cheney promised it would, the Justice Department is going to be under enormous pressure to bring charges against former President Trump and possibly others who worked with him to try to thwart the lawful counting of the votes," George Washington University Law School professor Stephen Saltzburg said Thursday after the first hearing.
On that note, here's some of what the committee promised:
- Testimony from staffers in the White House on Jan. 6 that Trump told his staff the rioters were, "Doing what they should be doing." Even more damning, Cheney said, will be testimony that when Trump learned supporters were chanting for Mike Pence to be hanged, he allegedly said, "Maybe they have the right idea."
- Depositions from close advisers to Trump saying under oath that he knew he lost the election. The committee showed a few of them Thursday night, including one in which then-Attorney General Bill Barr said he told Trump his election fraud claims were "bulls***." In another deposition, Trump's eldest daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka, said she believed Barr. In a third, campaign adviser and spokesman Jason Miller said the Trump campaign's data guy informed the former president in no uncertain terms that he was going to lose the election.
- Evidence showing multiple Republican members of Congress sought pardons from Trump in the days after the riot. According to Cheney, those members include Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who is alleged to have participated in the plan to overturn the election — specifically, according to the committee, the goal of replacing then-acting attorney general Jeff Rosen with DOJ lawyer Jeffrey Clark. Cheney said the plan was for Clark to then send a letter to six states, including Georgia, saying the Justice Department had identified concerns that might have impacted the outcome of the election. "That letter is a lie," Cheney said.
- Testimony from Jeff Rosen himself, who confirmed Friday he would appear publicly before the committee at a hearing Wednesday. Rosen will be joined by former DOJ colleagues Richard Donoghue and Steven Engel. During Thursday night's hearing, the committee played part of Donoghue's deposition in which he said he told Jeffrey Clark his plan was "nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election."
- Greg Jacob, who was general counsel for former Vice President Mike Pence, is also set to testify. Cheney said Jacob will speak during an upcoming hearing about Trump's "relentless" efforts to rope Pence into his scheme to overturn the election. The public already heard part of a deposition from Pence chief of staff Marc Short, who said the former vice president's "fidelity to the Constitution" was more important to him than loyalty to Trump.