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What to expect next in the Jan. 6 committee investigation : NPR


Republican Representative Liz Cheney speaks during a House Select Committee hearing to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol on July 21.

Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images


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Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images


Republican Representative Liz Cheney speaks during a House Select Committee hearing to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol on July 21.

Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images

The curtain fell late on Thursday during the committee’s summer hearing on January 6, a series of hearings, through highly produced presentations and bombastic witness testimony. , gave the public an inside look at what led up to the Capitol attack.

The Democratic-led panel presented its investigation across eight hearings over the course of June and July, placing former President Donald Trump at the center of an election fraud plot. eventually led to a uprising in the Capitol – an uprising that he knew could undo violence but did nothing to stop it.

So how about now?

Is Thursday’s hearing really the final hearing?

No. House Selection Committee January 6 made it clear that they would resume the hearings in September.

Republican Vice Chairman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., opened her final hearing over the summer by noting the progress the committee had made, but she added that there is now new and more evidence. More witnesses to consider.

“The door opened, new subpoenas were issued, and the dam started to break,” Cheney said.

Now, in the build-up to Thursday’s presentation, select committee aides have suggested that future hearings could be explored.

Representative Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, made the closing remarks during a prime-hour hearing on May 21. 7.

Photos Tasos Katopodis / Getty


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Photos Tasos Katopodis / Getty


Representative Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, made the closing remarks during a prime-hour hearing on May 21. 7.

Photos Tasos Katopodis / Getty

And Committee Chairperson Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters recently that the committee could issue an initial report in September, followed by a final report later this year. The findings will be accompanied by the hearing, he said.

“We just get a significant amount of information,” Thompson said. And new evidence “pushes the timetable out.”

What’s next for the console?

Cheney also noted during this week’s hearing that the panel will return to investigative mode in the next few weeks.

“Our committee will spend August pursuing emerging information on multiple fronts, before convening further hearings this September,” Cheney said.

Committee members were reluctant to call this next phase the commission’s final. Instead, some, such as California Democratic Representative Pete Aguilar, simply call it “the next chapter.”

“There are questions that we want to get to the bottom of and the significant progress we have made in the hearings so far,” Aguilar told NPR. “I look forward to moving on and doing more, but in the end we were committed to finding the truth, pursuing the truth and that’s what we wanted to do.”

With plans to release their findings in the form of reports and more hearings, the committee is racing to address new evidence along the way.

For example, the board is currently looking into allegations that Secret Service deleted text messages during the two-day period surrounding the January 6 attacks. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari claimed the messages were deleted upon request by his office, while the Secret Service. denied these allegations, saying the deletion was part of a system migration.

One summons send only a text message, a select committee assistant and said members. The Secret Service said it produced thousands of documents in response to a subpoena, issued just last week, and that it is conducting forensic analysis to try to recover the documents.

“I think it’s important to note that they didn’t turn over the texts that we were looking for,” committee member Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., told NPR.

This, as the panel is seeking to further corroborate sworn testimony given by former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, a one-time top aide to then-Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who shared an explosive new wave of testimony during an emergency hearing last month.

There are also looming questions about whether the panel will decide to formally recommend a criminal referral to Trump to the Ministry of Justiceand whether he or former Vice President Mike Pence should be formally asked to testify.

With Republicans expected to gain control of the House of Representatives in the fall, the committee is facing a deadline by the time a new Congress takes its seat next year.

Members are aware Their continued investigation could advance to the midterm elections in November, but echoing Aguilar’s remarks, they are committed to unearthing any possible findings by the end of the year.

Did the board report lead to any tangible action?

The report is expected to lay the groundwork, follow as closely as possible 9/11 commission reportabout the causes that prompted the January 6 attack and ways to ensure another siege never occurs again.

It will include much of what the panel has shared during its hearings, discovered through witness interviews and evidence obtained through requests for documents and records.

The committee may make recommendations on legislative amendments to try to thwart new attempts to circumvent US election laws. That includes potential proposals to reform the Voter Count Act of 1887.

Many people believe that the law is outdated and in need of reform. Some suggestions have made the rounds in Congress hadpush to raise the threshold for objecting to a state’s presidential election results and improve the vice president’s role as presiding officer over events of a largely ceremonial nature.

6 members of the panel argued that the legislation was weak enough to allow Trump to try to try to manipulate the 2020 election by trying to force Pence to overturn last year’s results.

And last week, a bipartisan Senate group took a leap forward on proposals, reaching an agreement on a plan to tackle complex legislation and other electoral protections. The bill is likely to attract the 60 votes it needs to pass in the Senate.

Thanks to Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, DW.Va., for spearheading the effort of 16 members, including nine Republican co-sponsors, in the equally divided Senate.

“From the outset, our bipartisan team shared a vision of drafting legislation to correct the flaws of the old and ambiguous Voter Counts Act of 1887,” the US senators said. said in a joint statement.

The Senate’s traction could bode well for future negotiations with the House of Representatives to push legislation that eventually reaches President Biden’s desk.



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