January 6 committee announces first prime time hearing will feature previously unseen material and witness testimony
Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson appear at the capitol on the one-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. Thompson and Cheney are on the committee investigating the riot.
By Zachary Cohen and Ryan Nobles, CNN
The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection of the US Capitol formally announced Thursday that its first public hearing will take place on June 9 at 8 p.m. ET.
The advisory does not list any witnesses for the hearing but says additional details will be released next week.
“The committee will present previously unseen material documenting January 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 advisory from the committee states.
CNN has previously reported that the committee was expected to hold its first hearing on that day and it would take place in prime time.
Thursday’s announcement is the first formal notice from the committee about its schedule for the upcoming hearings and the panel has kept its list of potential witnesses under very close hold in recent weeks.
The first hearing will be a broad overview of the panel’s 10-month investigation and set the stage for subsequent hearings, which are expected to cover certain topics or themes, sources tell CNN.
While the setup of the hearings has been a work in progress and evolving, sources note, the presentations will likely feature video clips from January 6, as well as some of the nearly 1,000 interviews the committee has conducted behind closed doors. That could help the committee share more testimony as well as deal with potentially recalcitrant witnesses.
CNN also reported Thursday that the committee has started to reach out to witnesses informing them of the panel’s desire to have them appear as part of its upcoming public hearings, which start later this month.
CNN has learned that two people, directly tied to former Vice President Mike Pence, are among those who have received invitations to appear. Former Pence chief counsel Greg Jacob and former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig have received outreach from the committee about their possible testimony.
In addition to Luttig and Jacob, CNN has learned that former Pence chief of staff Marc Short is expected to be called to testify as well.
All three men have already been interviewed privately by committee investigators. In some cases, their testimony has already been used by the committee as part of court filings and subpoena requests of other potential witnesses in their investigation.
The-CNN-Wire
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