Bombshell revelations promised in Capitol riot public hearings

WASHINGTON－The committee investigating last year's assault on the US Capitol will launch public hearings on Thursday, promising explosive revelations as it will lay out in granular detail the story of the deadly siege and assesses Donald Trump's culpability.

In the first of six made-for-TV presentations, the panel of lawmakers will aim to demonstrate that the then president and his inner circle committed felonies in a criminal conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden that culminated in the violence of Jan 6, 2021.

Democratic panel member Jamie Raskin said in a recent event at Georgetown University in Washington that the hearings would "tell a story that will really blow the roof off".

"No president has ever come close to doing what happened here in terms of trying to organize an inside coup to overthrow an election and bypass the constitutional order," Raskin said.

"And then also use a violent insurrection made up of domestic violent extremist groups, white nationalist and racist, fascist groups in order to support the coup."

As key witnesses testify in public for the first time, lawyers will exhibit texts, photographs and videos to shine a light on various schemes by the Trump White House that began to gestate before the election.

At the first hearing, in the 8 pm prime-time slot on Thursday, the panel said it will "present previously unseen material documenting Jan 6 … and provide the American people a summary of its findings about the coordinated, multistep effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the transfer of power".

Witnesses interviewed

Among the witnesses who will appear is a documentary filmmaker who filmed members of the far-right Proud Boys group as they stormed the Capitol.

Nick Quested, a British filmmaker who also witnessed some of the group's planning before the attack on the Capitol, confirmed to The Associated Press that he will be among the witnesses in Thursday night's hearing.

After Thursday, the Democrat-led committee, which has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, is expected to hold 10 am hearings on June 13, 15, 16 and 21, followed by a final hearing on June 23.

The committee will run through several unlawful plots.

They will also lay out an authoritarian plan to seize voting machines and the alleged plot to delay the certification of Biden's win through the violence at the Capitol, which was linked to five deaths and the wounding of more than 100 police officers.

In another development, a Proud Boys leader and four other members were indicted on sedition charges on Monday.

Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, 38, is already facing other charges related to the failed attempt by Trump supporters.

A superseding indictment unveiled on Monday added the more serious charge of seditious conspiracy to the charges against Tarrio, the former national chairman of the Proud Boys, and the four other members.

Tarrio was arrested in Miami in March and is also charged with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement, destruction of government property and other offenses.

More than 800 people across the US have been charged in the Jan 6 riot, and federal authorities continue to make new arrests practically every week.

Agencies via Xinhua