Lhe commission of inquiry into the assault on the Capitol announced on Wednesday June 22 that it was going to pause its television hearings, after having received numerous new videos, shot by a documentary filmmaker, showing Donald Trump and his family. Committee head Bennie Thompson said Thursday’s hearing, which will focus on Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to corrupt the Justice Department, would be the last before two more dates, “later in July.” After that, it is “always possible” that other hearings will take place, he said, recalling that their schedule followed above all “the investigation”.
For nearly a year, this group of elected officials – seven Democrats and two Republicans – has heard more than 1,000 witnesses, including two of the former president’s children, and sifted through 140,000 documents to shed light on the facts and precise gestures of Donald Trump before, during and after this event which shook American democracy, on January 6, 2021. The commission, which “is still receiving new evidence”, must “take the time to analyze this information”, has said Bennie Thompson.
Among the new elements, documents from the National Archives or new leads provided by calls to a telephone cell since the start of the televised hearings, earlier in June. But above all, hours of images shot by documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, who benefited from privileged access to Donald Trump and his entourage – in particular for interviews – before and after the assault on the Capitol. Starting next week, Congress will suspend for two weeks.
Members of the commission of inquiry threatened
Upon their return, elected officials are expected to dedicate part of the remaining hearings to the radicalization of activists who stormed the Capitol, and to the culture of political violence within the far right. A sign of the political tensions surrounding these hearings, The New York Times reported an upsurge in threats against committee members, who are likely to be provided with security.
Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans in it, released a letter to his wife threatening to kill the couple and their five-month-old baby. On Wednesday, federal officers raided the homes of two people involved in the plot to reverse the 2020 election result, according to The Washington Post. One of the suspects is accused of having wanted to impersonate a great voter, who, in the American electoral system, is responsible for designating the winner of the election in his state. The other had sought to have the election result invalidated in Arizona and New Mexico.