The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is punting its final two live hearings scheduled next week to July after receiving a “deluge of new evidence.”
“The Select Committee continues to receive additional evidence relevant to our investigation into the violence of January 6th and its causes,” a spokesman told ABC News on Wednesday.
“Following tomorrow’s hearing, we will be holding additional hearings in the coming weeks. We will announce dates and times for those hearings soon. ”
Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) Later confirmed the move to reporters, revealing that the hearings have been pushed back after the committee received footage from documentary filmmaker Alex Holder – who filmed former President Donald Trump and his family before and after the Capitol riot. – documents from the National archives, and new tips that came in during the first four live hearings held the past two weeks.
Thompson told Politico that the committee may add one or more hearings depending on the evidence and they will likely be scheduled following the Independence Day recess.
“There’s been a deluge of new evidence since we got started,” committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) Also told reporters while Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) Referenced a “mountain of new information,” according to the Hill.
“I don’t think we’ve established a date yet, but we have a mountain of new information that’s come in that we have to go through,” she told the outlet.
As the committee reviews the evidence, they are also moving to make a decision on the “next step” they will take regarding members of Congress who have ignored the subpoenas they issued for testimony.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) As well as Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) And Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) Were subpoenaed in May after they declined to voluntarily testify.
At the time, Thompson said all five “have information relevant to our investigation into the attack on January 6th and the events leading up to it” and Thompson urged his colleagues to “do their patriotic duty and cooperate with our investigation.”
On Wednesday, Thompson told reporters The decision will be made “in the next week or two.”
The hearings will likely not be pushed back much further than July as the committee is expected to provide its final report on its findings in the fall.
The committee is scheduled to hold the fifth hearing in its probe on Thursday at 1 pm It will focus on the former president’s efforts to allegedly “corrupt” the Department of Justice.
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