Jan. 6th Committee hearings set to begin June 9

(Photo credit: @little_plant, Unsplash)

One week from today, a series of eight hearings into the Jan. 6th insurrection are scheduled to begin, two of which are set to air during primetime. The hearings are nearly one year in the making, after the House established the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol on June 30, 2021. 

The Select Committee, led by Chairman Bennie G. Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, has spent the past year investigating the facts and causes of the events of Jan. 6, while also recommending to Congress laws, policies, procedures, rules, and regulations to prevent a future effort to overturn a presidential election.

Just look at Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who was in constant communication with President Trump throughout the events of Jan. 6. Or Rep. Scott Perry, who was working to install Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General at the Department of Justice while alleging that Dominion voting machines were rigged against Trump.

There’s also Rep. Jim Jordan, who was also in touch with Trump on Jan. 6 after spending weeks strategizing efforts to overturn the 2020 election with Rep. Andy Biggs. Biggs was working overtime in the weeks after Biden’s victory to persuade state officials that the election was stolen while also working proactively to secure a presidential pardon from Trump for his efforts.

And don’t forget about Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, who told the crowd of insurrectionists on Jan. 6 to "start taking down names and kicking ass."

Some Republicans have even been held in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, including former Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Assistant to the President Peter Navarro, and former White House Communications Deputy Chief Dan Scavino. 

On May 19, Thompson and Cheney sent a letter to Rep. Barry Loudermilk, requesting the congressman provide information about a tour through parts of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, the day before the insurrection.

The letter suggests Loudermilk led the tour in question, with witness accounts indicating “some individuals and groups engaged in efforts to gather information about the layout of the U.S. Capitol, as well as the House and Senate office buildings.”

The hearings are sure to be devastating for Republicans, many of whom actively participated in the organizing and incitement of the Jan. 6th insurrection. The Select Committee has interviewed more than one thousand individuals in their investigation, noting in a tweet that  “the vast majority of witnesses who have been subpoenaed have complied.”

A May 27 tweet from the committee reads, "The refusal of these Members to cooperate is a continued assault on the rule of law and sets a dangerous new precedent that could hamper the House’s ability to conduct oversight in the future."

With no legitimate counterargument to Trump’s conspiracy to overturn the election and subsequent insurrection, Republicans are instead attacking the legitimacy and constitutionality of the Select Committee itself. 

The GOP has already censured the two participating Republicans, Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, effectively cutting off all support from the party, something that likely contributed to Kinzinger’s decision to resign at the end of his term.

According to a report from POLITICO, opponents of the inquiry have filed at least 25 lawsuits, including one from the former president himself. The legal effort by Trump to prevent the committee from reviewing White House documents from the National Archives was ultimately thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court back in January. The only justice to support Trump’s bid was Clarence Thomas, whose wife has recently made headlines for participating in the insurrection herself. 

In what has become even more frightening news, The New York Times reported last week that a former White House aide testified to the committee that Trump “reacted approvingly” to the prospect of Vice President Mike Pence being murdered by insurrectionists after the second-in-command failed to stop the certification of the presidential election.

While any criminal proceedings will remain up to the Department of Justice, the committee will pen a final report that’s likely to end up in bookstores much like Robert Mueller’s 2019 report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The series of public hearings isn’t the first for the committee. Last July, the world watched as four frontline police officers shared harrowing stories of being crushed in a doorway, tased and beaten with a flagpole, and sprayed with chemical irritants by insurrectionists.

For one Black officer, Harry Dunn, the insurrection marked the first time in his career he was called the N word. 

“One officer told me he had never in his entire 40 year life been called a n----- to his face and that streak ended on January 6,” Dunn told the committee last summer in what was among the most devastating testimony thus far in the inquiry.