Jan. 6 panel calls surprise hearing to present new evidence

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This article was published 26/06/2022 (914 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 panel is calling a surprise hearing this week to present evidence it says it recently obtained, raising expectations of new bombshells in the sweeping investigation into the Capitol insurrection.

The hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. on Tuesday comes after Congress left Washington for a two-week recess. Lawmakers on the panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection said last week that there would be no more hearings until July.

The subject of the hearings is so far unclear. A spokesman for the panel declined to comment on its substance.

The committee’s investigation has been ongoing during the hearings that started three weeks ago, and the nine-member panel has continued to probe the attack by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Among other investigative evidence, the committee recently obtained new footage of Trump and his inner circle taken both before and after Jan. 6, 2021 from British filmmaker Alex Holder.

Holder said last week that he had complied with a congressional subpoena to turn over all of the footage he shot in the final weeks of Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, including exclusive interviews with Trump, his children and then-Vice President Mike Pence while on the campaign trail. The footage includes material from before the insurrection and afterward.

It is uncertain if Holder’s footage is the subject of the hearing on Tuesday, or if Holder himself will be there. A lawyer for Holder declined to comment.

The panel has held five hearings so far, and at least two more hearings were planned for July. Lawmakers said the future hearings would focus on domestic extremists who breached the Capitol that day and on what Trump was doing as the violence unfolded.