June 9 (UPI) — More than 500 days after the attack at the U.S. Capitol and almost a year after it was formed, the House Jan. 6 committee on Thursday will present new evidence and a full backstory on the assault on the first day of its prime-time public hearings.
The bipartisan committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, will look to bring before the American people the result of more than 1,000 interviews and its investigation over the past 11 months during the inaugural public hearing, which is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. MDT).
Panel Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and the other members — Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.; Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; Elaine Luria, D-Va.; Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.; Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla.; and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., are expected to deliver opening statements.
Thursday’s hearing will open with eyewitness testimony from a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was injured during the assault, and also include a documentarian who interviewed the radical right-wing group the Proud Boys, according to The New York Times.
The committee was formed last July, with its main task to investigate the attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by a mob of radical supporters of former President Donald Trump. They assaulted police, broke doors and windows to get inside the building and some searched for members of Congress — all in a misguided bid to halt certification of Joe Biden‘s election victory.
Many have labeled it a coup attempt, and hundreds of people have been arrested since the day of the attack, facing federal charges.
Also part of the investigation are the roles played by Trump — who was impeached for inciting the Capitol attack, but acquitted by a Republican Senate — and members of his administration.
In March, the committee for the first time indicated that Trump was part of a conspiracy to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. It noted that in the weeks after the election, Trump interfered with the certification process, disseminated false information about voter fraud and “pressured state officials to alter state election results and federal officials to assist in that effort.”
