Panel probing U.S. Capitol riot plans ‘multiple weeks’ of hearings

The House of Representatives panel investigating the deadly Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot plans to hold “multiple weeks” of public hearings next year, its vice chairwoman, Republican Representative Liz Cheney, said on Thursday.

That signaled a new phase in the investigation by the House select committee, which to date has held only three public sessions in its investigation of the attack on the Capitol by mobs of supporters of former President Donald Trump.

One was a hearing at which police officers described being beaten, taunted with racial insults, and threatened during the attack, and the two others were business meetings to vote on contempt of Congress resolutions against Trump adviser Steven Bannon and former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark.

“We are making rapid progress. We anticipate next year, we will be conducting multiple weeks of public hearings, setting out for the American people in vivid color exactly what happened, every minute of the day on January 6th, here at the Capitol and at the White House, and what led to that violent attack,” Cheney said at a House Rules Committee hearing on Thursday.

The select committee was to have voted on the contempt effort against Clark but delayed its action because he invoked his privilege against self-incrimination under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment on Wednesday and agreed to come before the panel on Saturday.

Democrat Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee, said that the overwhelming majority of witnesses are cooperating with the panel and that 250 people have testified behind closed doors.