January 6 committee announces October 13 public hearing

By Annie Grayer, Zachary Cohen and Sara Murray, CNN

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill insurrection announced Thursday that the panel’s next public hearing will be October 13 at 1 p.m. ET.

The committee had to reschedule this hearing, which was originally set for the end of September, because of Hurricane Ian.

This will be the panel’s 10th hearing since it formed. It did not specify the topic of the hearing in its announcement.

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the committee, told reporters last week that he did not expect the hearing to have live witnesses.

“We’re not really looking at bringing witnesses before the committee in the next hearing,” Thompson said about the next hearing but promised it will feature “significant information” that has not yet been shown.

The committee’s hearing next week comes more than two months since the panel’s last public appearance. Throughout June and July, the committee held a series of eight news-packed hearings to reveal key themes of its investigation so far.

Members have promised that the hearing next week will reveal new information that it uncovered and has not previously disclosed.

This hearing could be the last hearing until after the November midterm elections. Thompson told reporters last week that the committee could release an interim report on some of its initial findings before the midterms. The panel is still working toward presenting a final report by the end of the year.

Just last week, the committee interviewed Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for more than four hours. She voluntarily cooperated with the committee after the panel expressed interest in speaking with her because of her potential involvement in helping to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Thompson said after the interview that Thomas’ testimony could be incorporated in the committee’s next hearing “if there’s something of merit.”

Since July, the committee has received around 800,000 pages of materials from the Secret Service in response to a subpoena, as the committee continues to investigate why certain text messages from Secret Service agents went missing from January 5 and 6, 2021.

Thompson has described the trove of documents the Secret Service provided as “significant information.”

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who also serves on the panel, said at the Texas Tribune festival in September that the January 6 committee also has more to reveal about the connection between longtime Donald Trump ally Roger Stone and domestic extremist groups.

Raskin said to “stay tuned” when it comes to Stone’s involvement in January 6.

Throughout the summer, the committee interviewed a number of members of Trump’s Cabinet, whose testimony could also be featured in next week’s hearing.

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