At 10 a.m. EDT, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection will have its second hearing. Here's some of what to expect:
The second public hearing by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection will focus on then-President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen — dubbed the “big lie” — and how those false claims were connected to the pro-Trump mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol that day in a bid to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college win, lawmakers on the bipartisan panel said Sunday.
In a background briefing with reporters on Sunday night, a select committee aide said the hearing on Monday, led by Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) with an assist from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), will also dissect the fundraising apparatus that was built around the “big lie” to drive up the post-election cash haul.
“We will reveal information about how the former president’s political apparatus used these lies about fraud, about a stolen election, to drive fundraising, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars between Election Day 2020 and January 6,” a committee aide said.
“And we’ll show that some of those individuals responsible for the violence on the 6th echoed back to those very same lies that the president peddled in the run-up to the insurrection,” the aide added. [snip]
Testifying on Monday before the committee will be former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien; Chris Stirewalt, a former political editor for Fox News; Benjamin Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer; former U.S. attorney B.J. “BJay” Pak; and Al Schmidt, a former city commissioner of Philadelphia.
The witnesses are likely to bolster the committee’s assertion that Trump had a “seven-part plan” to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the committee’s vice chair, said Thursday.
The third hearing, on Wednesday, will cover the Malignant Loser's attempts to pressure the Department of Justice to overturn the election results by giving credence to the Big Lie that there was rampant fraud.
The remaining hearings are tentatively scheduled as follows:
Hearing 4 is intended to outline Trump’s efforts to pressure VP Mike Pence to stop the electoral count. There is some indication this hearing will take place Thursday, June 16. Greg Jacob, the former chief counsel to the vice president will reportedly testify.
Hearing 5, June 21 will trace the then-president’s alleged efforts to unduly influence state legislators and election officials. Brad Raffensperger, secretary of state of Georgia and Gabriel Sterling, one his top aides, have been subpoenaed to testify.
Hearings 6 & 7 are meant to detail how “Trump summoned a violent mob and directed them, illegally, to march on the U.S. Capitol” and how he failed to act to stop those same people as they invaded the Capitol building. No date is yet set for these proceedings.
Members of the committee are indicating in various forums that the hearings will essentially prosecute the case that the Malignant Loser committed multiple federal crimes, including the most obvious and serious: conspiracy to commit sedition (18 USC § 2384).
ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and MSNBC will provide live coverage (the LA Times is reporting that Fox "News" will also cover the daytime hearing, unlike its blackout of last Thursday's evening hearing).
(Photo illustration: Salon/Getty Images)
