At the beginning of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Capitol Police and members of the DC Metro Police testified about their experiences in moving stories about fears that they were going to die during the Trump-incited riots.
Since then, however, the committee has operated largely in out of public view. But that's about to change.
The Washington Post revealed that the next steps of the committee are public ones. Thus far, the members have interviewed over 300 people and sent several subpoenas to former White House officials and telecommunications companies. The evidence is stacking up as many, even allies of former President Donald Trump, are turning over information, despite his demand not to cooperate. Those documents, thus far, estimate over 35,000 pages.
The committee "is examining whether to recommend that the Justice Department pursue charges against anyone, including former President Donald Trump, and whether legislative proposals are needed to help prevent valid election results from being overturned in the future," the report said.
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The committee's battle with former Trump officials like Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows is leading members to move faster out of fear that gerrymandering could swing the balance of power to the GOP in 2022.
"The public business meeting earlier this month, where panel members revealed a sliver of the 9,000 documents and records provided by Meadows, was a taste of what it hopes to accomplish in hearings throughout 2022: a dramatic presentation of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Trump, his allies and anyone involved in the attack or the attempt to overturn the election results," said the Post.
A committee aide explained that they want to tell a story from "start to finish."
They're anticipating that the public hearings would begin in the new year and go into the spring, with a final report coming in the summer.
“I think we may issue a couple reports and I would hope for a [full] interim report in the summer, with the eye towards maybe another — I don’t know if it’d be final or another interim report later in the fall,” the Post reported, quoting a second senior committee aide.
The items they're focusing on include things like the money and funding for the "Stop the Steal" events, the propaganda and misinformation campaign that led to the fury, government agencies that failed to properly anticipate the violence and act when necessary, the campaigns to overturn the 2020 election and organizers of the events and their plans.
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