Panel presents Capitol attack evidence

Former President Donald Trump is expected to watch, so is President Joe Biden.
Two witnesses will testify tonight, including Caroline Edwards, an injured Capitol Police officer.
British documentarian Nick Quested, who filmed around the Capitol during the attack, will testify.
House Republicans criticize the investigation as illegitimate and partisan.

WASHINGTON – The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack heard riveting testimony Thursday from a police officer wounded in the attack and broadcast to a prime-time audience video of a meeting between men charged with seditious conspiracy.

The committee also outlined subjects it will cover in a series of June hearings, including former President Donald Trump’s pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to overturnt he election and his attempt to replace his attorney general.

The highlights:

• Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described how she suffered a concussion while grappling with rioters over bike racks. “I was slipping in people’s blood,” she said. “I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage.” She also recalled seeing Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day, turn ghostly white after being sprayed with chemicals.

• Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the committee, charged that Trump “oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated 7-part plan to overturn the presidential election.”

• Video from British documentarian Nick Quested showed a meeting between leaders of two far-right groups, Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, in a parking garage the night before the attack. Tarrio and Rhodes are each charged with seditious conspiracy and each has pleaded not guilty.

• Former Attorney General William Barr told the House panel investigating the Capitol attack he resigned in December 2020 from the Trump administration rather than challenge the election results.

• Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter and senior adviser, said she accepted the Justice Department’s finding of no fraud sufficient to overturn the 2020 – in contrast to her father.

“Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy,” said the committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. said, which he called “the culmination of an attempted coup.”

Hearings will continue next week.

On Monday, lawmakers will cover how Trump and his advisers knew he lost the election. On Wednesday, they will deal with Trump planning to replace Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. On Thursday, the panel will describe Trump’s pressure on Pence. A fifth June hearing will focus on Trump pressuring officials in states he lost. And two final hearings will cover Trump summoning the mob.

Trump rebuked Jan. 6 panel as biased after first hearing

Former President Donald Trump derided the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as biased in a statement posted to Truth Social shortly after the panel’s first hearing concluded.

“So the Unselect Committee of political HACKS refuses to play any of the many positive witnesses and statements, refuses to talk of the Election Fraud and irregularities that took place on a massive scale, and decided to use a documentary maker from Fake News ABC to spin only negative footage,” he wrote. “Our Country is in such trouble!”

The former president’s claims of election fraud are unfounded.

– Ella Lee

Fact check:Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims

When is the next Jan. 6 committee hearing?

The next hearing of the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will be Monday at 10 a.m.

Two more have been announced as well: Wednesday, also at 10 a.m and next Thursday (June 16) at 1 p.m.

Several more hearings are expected to be announced in the coming days.Thursday’s hearing was the first in a series of public hearings over the next few weeks.

Who’s watching?:Jan. 6 committee’s long-awaited hearings promise revelations. Will a divided US want to hear them?

– Chelsey Cox

At DC watch party, hearing gets positive reviews

After the hearing concluded at a DC watch party hosted by progressive group Public Citizen, viewers left largely satisfied.

Debbie Allen, 65, a DC native, says she “was glad to see some new footage.”

“I thought they were presenting a cohesive story that gave us a glimpse of what was happening before, during, and after the insurrection.”

Allen says she has never seen anything like the hearing before. “I’m 65. The America I grew up in, I thought we were more united about good and bad, right and wrong.”

– Kenneth Tran

New evidence: Donald Trump didn’t mind the idea of hanging Mike Pence

One new revelation that surfaced in this hearing: Direct quotes from Donald Trump expressing approval of threats by supporters to hang Vice President Mike Pence.

In previewing future testimony, committee member Liz Cheney said: “You will hear that President Trump was yelling and, quote, ‘really angry at advisors who told him he needed to be doing something more’ and aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence’.”

She added: “The President responded with this sentiment: ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence, quote, ‘deserves it’.”

The New York Times reported last month that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told colleagues that Trump “had said something to the effect of, maybe Mr. Pence should be hanged.”

Trump was angry at Pence for his refusal to throw out the electoral votes that elected President Joe Biden; Pence said he lacked the legal authority to do such a thing.

– David Jackson

The witnesses:Who were the witnesses at the Jan. 6 committee hearing? Here’s who testified about the Capitol riot

‘I was slipping in people’s blood,’ Capitol Police officer says

A Capitol Police officer who was injured during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021 described what she saw as a “war scene” that caused her breath to catch into her throat as she saw what was going on.

“It was something like I had seen out of the movies,” said Caroline Edwards. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They were throwing up.”

“I saw friends with blood all over their faces,” Edwards said. “I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos.”

– Erin Mansfield

Gallery:Chilling images from the Capitol riot: Jan. 6 insurrection in photos

For one attendee, Jan. 6 committee is compelling, but little hopes of change

At a DC watch party, Zak Sabim from Virginia listened to the hearing “because I think right is right and wrong is wrong.” He said he found the committee’s evidence compelling.

“You have to document it. If it’s not appreciated now. Hopefully people in the future will appreciate it,” he said.

But Sabim also said he sees America as too polarized now for the committee to achieve any outcomes. The Capitol attack has become like a “soap opera” for Sabim.

“I feel like there’s been a couple seasons I missed out on,” he said “It seems like something if you’re a Democratic voter, you probably know all the cast of characters.”

– Kenneth Tran

The hearings:Who will be Jan. 6 hearing’s most avid viewer? Donald Trump, with a team ready to hit back.

Proud Boys membership tripled; then they organized for Jan. 6

Membership in the “western chauvinist” group the Proud Boys nearly tripled after then-President Donald Trump told them in a debate to “stand back and stand by,” according to testimony.

Then, when Trump urged Twitter followers to show up for a rally on Jan. 6, “Be there, will be wild!” Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio created a social media group to organize its members to show up on Jan. 6.

The group was called a “Ministry of Self Defense,” according to Department of Justice Documents shared in the hearing.

– Erin Mansfield

Who are the Proud Boys? They joined the Wisconsin Proud Boys looking for brotherhood. They found racism, bullying and antisemitism.

Capitol Police officer describes spraying of colleague who died

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick turned ghostly white after being sprayed with chemicals while grappling with rioters Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards told the House panel investigating the attack.

Sicknick died the next day from strokes ruled by natural causes. But Edwards, who suffered a concussion, said she returned to the police line where she served outside the House clashing with the mob over bicycle racks for more than a half-hour with Sicknick.

“All of a sudden, I see movement to the left of me and I turned and it was Officer Sicknick with his head in this hands,” Edwards testified Thursday. “And he was ghostly pale, which I figured at that point that he had been sprayed and I was concerned.”

“My cop alarm bells went off because if you get sprayed with pepper spray, you’re going to turn red,” she added, holding up a sheet of paper. “He turned just about as pale as this sheet of paper.”

– Bart Jansen

Edwards describes blacking out after rioters ripped down first barricade

Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards described her injuries during the Jan. 6 attacks after rioters ripped down the first barricade moments after she told her sergeant that “we’re going to need a few more people down here.”

Edwards said that after the first barricade came down, she and other officers started grappling over the bike racks “to make sure that we can get more people down and get our CPU units time to answer the call.” But she said that she felt a back rack come on top of her head, and her foot caught the stair behind where she was standing.

“My chin hit the handrail and then — I at that point I blacked out — but my back of my head clipped the concrete stairs behind me,” Edwards said.

– Rebecca Morin

Leaders of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers met in a parking garage

Leaders of the ‘western chauvanist’ Proud Boys and the extremist militia group Oath Keepers met in a parking garage the night before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Nick Quested, a documentary filmmaker, testified that he and his crew went to pick up Enrique Tarrio from jail before meeting with Stewart Rhodes.

The crew “drove down into the parking garage and filmed the scene of Mr. Tarrio and Mr. Rhodes and certain other individuals in that garage,” Quested said.

— Erin Mansfield

Committee airs film about Trump’s inspiration to Proud Boys, other extremist groups

The committee produced video clips from a documentary about the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other white nationalist groups who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol – and Trump’s incitement of them.

The film replayed Trump’s infamous 2020 presidential debate comment about the Proud Boys – “stand back and stand by” – and his tweet encouraging people to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Many violent offenders said they believed they were acting at Trump’s behest.

“We have obtained substantial evidence showing that the president’s December 19th tweet, calling his followers to D.C. on January 6th, energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups,” said committee chairman Bennie Thompson.

Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested testified about his filming of the Proud Boys,

– David Jackson

Proud Boys:Who are the Proud Boys? Far-right group has concerned experts for years

House panel outlines hearing subjects

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., outlined the subjects of other June hearings the House panel investigating the Capitol attack Jan. 6, 2021:

–The hearing Monday at 10 a.m. will explore how former President Donald Trump and his advisers knew he lost the 2020 election, but still spread false and fraudulent information, Cheney said.

–The hearing Wednesday at 10 a.m. will reveal Trump corruptly planning to replace Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Cheney said.

–The hearing Thursday at 1 p.m. will describe Trump’s pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to reject state electors.

The fifth June hearing will focus on Trump pressuring officials in states he lost to change their results, particularly in Georgia where he urged them to “find” 11,780 votes he needed to win.

The final two hearings in June will cover Trump summoning a mob and directing them to march on the Capitol, and then failing to stop the violence, Cheney said.

– Bart Jansen

Edwards says she wondered ‘how we had gotten here’ during Capitol attacks

Caroline Edwards, a U.S. Capitol Police officer injured during the Capitol attack, said that she had never had her “patriotism or duty been called into question” but that she would “gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come.”

In her opening statement, Edwards said that she had been called “Nancy Pelosi’s dog” and “a traitor to my country, my oath and my constitution” during the attacks at the Capitol.

“In actuality, I wasn’t none of those things,” she said. “I was an American standing face to face with other Americans asking myself…how we had gotten here.”

– Rebecca Morin

Pence chief of staff: Veep chose Constitution over Trump

Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, said he felt proud of much of what was accomplished during the Trump administration, but that his boss split with the president over fighting the election results.

Pence refused to single-handedly reject electors, as Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman, repeatedly pressured him to do.

“I think he ultimately knew that his fidelity to the Constitution was his first and foremost oath,” Short told the House panel investigating the Capitol attack in a videotaped deposition. “That’s what he articulated publicly. And I think that that’s what he felt.”

– Bart Jansen

Investigation remains ongoing, even as hearings begin

More information continues to pour into the committee investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is continuing, even as public hearings are ongoing.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., told the public to expect additional information to be included in the final report disclosed to the public because the committee’s investigation remains ongoing.

Cheney also said that the Department of Justice has been working with cooperating witnesses and so far has only disclosed some of the information it has identified.

– Erin Mansfield

Adviser Jason Miller: Donald Trump didn’t believe evidence he had lost

A Donald Trump political adviser whose videotaped testimony popped up at the Jan. 6 hearing said the committee did not broadcast his remarks in full.

In the hearing video, Miller testified that an aide told Trump he simply did not have the votes to win the 2020 election.

On Twitter, Miller said the video was cut off before his next remarks, which were about how Trump did not believe the analysis.

He provided a transcript:

“Q: Okay. And what was the President’s reaction then when Matt said to him, ‘hey, we’ve looked at the numbers, you’re going to lose’? A: I think it’s safe to say he disagreed with Matt’s analysis.”

– David Jackson

Head Oath Keeper:Vegas parking valet, Yale law graduate, unhinged Oath Keepers leader: Who is Stewart Rhodes?

For some DC watch party attendees, the hearing is personal

Two attendees, Whitney Williams and Raleigh Lancaster, both DC natives, say the hearing is more personal to them since they were close by when protestors breached the Capitol.

“This isn’t really a place where this happens,” says Lancaster. “I’ve just never seen anything like this before.”

Williams is retired, and is barely involved in politics. But because the attack was at her doorstep, “it’s so important,” for her. She says she never listens to congressional hearings but tonight’s hearing is different.

“It’d be a sad day for America,” says Lancaster, if nothing comes out of the hearing.

– Kenneth Tran

Cheney to Republicans: ‘Your dishonor will remain’

In the final remarks of her opening statement, Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney condemned the members of her party who have chosen to look the other way on the events of Jan. 6 and the efforts that led to it.

“Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible,” she said. “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

– Ella Lee

Committee shows video detailing timeline of Capitol attack

After opening remarks, the hearing turned to a video of the Jan. 6 attack, detailing minute-by-minute how the attack unfolded led by Trump’s speech outside the White House beforehand.

“I hope Mike is going to do the right thing,” Trump is shown saying. ” I hope. Because if Mike does the right thing, we win the election.”

The video detailed involvement of the far-right organization Proud Boys. It also showed communication from Capitol Police officers as rioters began to breach the building, breaking windows and storming the steps as members of Congress met to certify the 2020 electoral count.

– Joey Garrison

Widows of officers who died as result of Jan. 6 emotional watching video

Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn stretched his arm out around widows Serena Liebengood and Sandra Garza as the video played of the violence unfolding on Jan. 6.

Liebengood and Garza pulled out tissues and wiped away tears watching the video — their husbands Howie Liebengood and Brian Sicknick died in the aftermath of Jan 6., one by suicide and one after suffering two strokes.

– Dylan Wells

Sean Hannity, Kayleigh McEnany wanted Trump to end ‘crazy’ stuff

The committee has released notable text messages from major supporters who urged then-President Donald Trump to stop claiming the 2020 election had been stolen – advice Trump has ignored to this day.

A day after the Jan. 6 insurrection, talk show host Sean Hannity texted White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany about what Trump needed: “No more crazy people” and “no more stolen election talk … Many people will quit.”

McEnany texted back: “Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook.”

Trump did not heed that advice.

– David Jackson

Milley recalls Meadows saying ‘need to kill’ narrative that Trump wasn’t in charge

Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, told Gen. Mark Milley, Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that they “need to kill the narrative” that Trump was not in charge.

Milley said during a video deposition that Vice President Mike Pence “issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders” to “get the military down here.”

“We need to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions,” Milley recalled Meadows telling him in a deposition excerpt. “We need to establish the narrative that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable.”

– Rebecca Morin

Trump met with Flynn, Powell, Giuliani before tweeting “Be there, will be wild!”

Former President Donald Trump met with former aide Gen. Michael Flynn, attorney Sidney Powell, and advisor Rudy Giuliani, among others, to discuss “having the military seize voting machines and potentially rerun elections,” according to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

The meeting that ran late into the evening took place on Dec. 18, according to Cheney. The president met with the group alone before “White House lawyers and other staff discovered the group was there and rushed to intervene.”

The next day, Trump tweeted that there would be a big protest in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6th. “Be there, will be wild!” he told his followers.

– Erin Mansfield

More:What we don’t know about Jan. 6: What Trump’s family told the committee, whether attack was organized

Ivanka Trump accepted DOJ’s finding of no election fraud

Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump’s daughter and senior adviser, said she accepted the Justice Department’s finding of no fraud sufficient to overturn the 2020 – in contrast to her father.

Ivanka Trump said she trusted the finding because she respected then-Attorney General William Barr, who said he resigned in part rather than fight to overturn the election. Her conclusion contrasted to her father’s continued efforts to overturn election results.

“It affected my perspective,” Ivanka Trump said. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”

– Bart Jansen

Ivanka’s take:House Jan. 6 panel shows Ivanka Trump opposing claims of 2020 election fraud, in contrast to former President Donald Trump

Cheney: Trump had 7-part plan to overturn the presidential election

Rep. Liz Cheney said former President Donald Trump “oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated 7-part plan to overturn the presidential election.”

Cheney said Trump wanted to prevent the transfer of presidential power. She added that evidence of each element of the plan will be laid out during the hearing.

“All Americans should keep and bear in mind that on the morning of Jan. 6, President Donald Trump’s intention was to remain President of the United States despite the lawful outcome of the 2020 election,” she said.

– Rebecca Morin

Bennie Thompson: Donald Trump was “the center of this conspiracy”

In case there was any doubt, committee chairman Bennie Thompson made clear the night’s main theme: President Donald Trump engineered a plot to steal the 2020 election from President-elect Joe Biden.

“Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy,” Thompson said, describing Jan. 6 as “the culmination of an attempted coup.”

Thompson pledged to show evidence to back up his claim.

– David Jackson

What to know:Here’s what you need to know about the Jan. 6 committee and its June hearings

Cheney: testimony will show Trump ignored aides’ pleas to call off attack

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said testimony from a more than a half-dozen Trump aides that Thursday’s hearing will highlight will show that Trump ignored pleas from his staff to call off the riot because he supported it.

“In the hearings to come, President Trump believed his supporters at the Capitol, and I quote, “were doing what they should be doing,’ Cheney said. “This is what he told his staff as they pleaded with him to call off the mob.”

Cheney said that evidence will also show Trump was angry at advisor who told him that he needed to be do something more even though he was aware of threats to hang Vice President Mike Pence

“The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot,” Cheney said, pointing to intelligence about the attack beforehand.

– Joey Garrison

Barr opposed Trump’s claims 2020 election was ‘stolen’

Former Attorney General William Barr told the House panel investigating the Capitol attack he resigned in December 2020 from the Trump administration rather than challenge the election results.

Barr, who has said publicly the Justice Department found no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, said he met with then-President Donald Trump on Nov. 23, Dec. 1 and Dec. 14 to make it clear he didn’t agree with putting out the election was stolen.

“I told the president it was bull—-,” Barr said in a videotaped deposition played at the hearing. “I didn’t want to be a part of it and that’s one of the reasons that went into me leaving when I did.”

– Bart Jansen

Police officers and widows of officers who died are in attendance

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone are in the hearing room, seated behind where witnesses will testify.

Erin Smith, Serena Liebengood, and Sandra Garza – all widows of officers who died in the aftermath of Jan. 6 – are seated with them.

Dunn is wearing a shirt that shows definitions of “insurrection,” including “January 6, 2021”

– Dylan Wells

Thompson: American democracy ‘remains in danger’

The chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, will open Thursday’s hearing saying efforts to undermine the Constitution and thwart the will of the American people aren’t over, according to excerpts of his remarks.

Thompson, D-Miss., will say “our democracy remains in danger” and must be protected through the investigation of the Capitol attack. He said a series of hearings this month won’t just look backward at what happened Jan. 6, 2021, but also forward to protect the rule of law.

“We can’t sweep what happened under the rug,” Thompson will say. “We must confront the truth with candor, resolve and determination.”

–Bart Jansen

Who’s on the panel:Meet the members of the January 6 House select committee ahead of first public hearing Thursday

Open minds but no high expectations at a DC watch party

At a watch party in the Taft Memorial Carillon hosted by the non-profit progressive consumer group Public Citizen, a couple hundred of attendees are anxiously and excitedly waiting for the long awaited Jan. 6 hearing.

Glenn Daigon, from North Bethesda MD, says he doesn’t want to be too excited or disappointed with how the hearing turns out: “I don’t see this as a slam dunk either way.”

But he would like to see at least some “indictments and convictions.” He says if there’s no accountability for the Capitol attack, “there’s no point” in the hearings.

– Kenneth Tran

What is Donald Trump doing during the hearing?

Don’t expect former President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence to testify –but Trump is expected to watch, according to people who have spoken with him in recent days.

Trump, a prolific and mercurial watcher of television news during his four years in the White House wants to know what the special House committee, packed with political opponents, will bring out to show to the American people, particularly since he has no allies on the committee to tip him off ahead of time, said two people who have talked with him recently and spoke on condition of anonymity about private conversations.

The original panel would have included GOP allies of Trump but House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy removed all five of his choices after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of them.

– Chelsey Cox

Trump tuned in:Who will be Jan. 6 hearing’s most avid viewer? Donald Trump, with a team ready to hit back.

Jim Jordan spurns Jan. 6 committee as Saturday subpoena deadline looms

In an 11-page letter sent to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questioned the panel’s legitimacy and again asked its members to share the information amassed on him before he agrees to testify.

“While some courts have recognized the Select Committee’s investigation as having a legitimate legislative purpose, it does not necessarily follow that the Select Committee’s subpoena to me is in furtherance of a legitimate legislative purpose,” Jordan writes in the letter, sent the day of the committee’s first public hearing.

Jordan is one of five GOP members subpoenaed by the select committee, alongside Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania; Andy Biggs of Arizona; Mo Brooks of Alabama; and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. Jordan has until Saturday to comply with the subpoena.

– Ella Lee

Get the latest politics news in your inbox:Sign up for our On Politics newsletter

House GOP Leader McCarthy declines to address 2020 election legitimacy

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Thursday declined to say clearly whether President Joe Biden rightfully won the 2020 election.

“We’ve asked this question a long time,” McCarthy said to reporters during a press conference. “Joe Biden is the president. I think you can look that there’s a lot of problems still with the election process.”

McCarthy, who said Thursday he has answered the questions many times before, has shifted his views since the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection attempt. He suggested days after the attack that Trump resign, but has refused to cooperate with a subpoena from the committee investigating that day.

– Erin Mansfield

Biden calls Jan. 6 attack a ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’ ahead of primetime hearing

President Joe Biden called the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution” Thursday, hours before a House committee investigating the insurrection holds its first public hearing.

“A lot of Americans are going to see for the first time some of the details that occurred,” Biden said, giving unprompted remarks on the hearing at the beginning of a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Los Angeles at the Summit of Americas.

“I think these guys broke the law and tried to turn around the results an of election. There’s a lot of questions – who’s responsible, who’s involved? I’m not going to make a judgment on that.”

– Joey Garrison

More:Menendez: Mexico’s president tried to ‘blackmail’ Biden to invite ‘dictators’ to Americas summit

Bill Barr met with committee about Trump’s election fraud claims

A week before the first public hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee, former attorney general Bill Barr met with the panel about Trump’s claims of election fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s claims are seen by some as a catalyst for the attack on the Capitol.

Barr’s meeting focused on material in his book, “One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General.” Though he left the Trump administration weeks before the insurrection, Barr was still the nation’s top law enforcement officer during and after the presidential election.

After a Justice Department investigation into the fraud claims, Barr told the Associated Press in December 2020 that the agency hadn’t “seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

– Chelsey Cox

First 2 witnesses are injured Capitol Police officer, documentarian

Two witnesses spoke at the first hearing. One was Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury when the mob pushed her to the ground after breaking through a fence of bicycle racks outside the Capitol.

She was the first of 140 officers injured that day, according to the committee. Other officers have recalled hearing her pleas for help.

The other witness was an acclaimed British documentarian, Nick Quested, who filmed around the Capitol during the attack. The day before the riot, Quested also filmed the leaders of two far-right groups – Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who are each charged with seditious conspiracy – meeting in a parking garage near the Capitol, according to the New York Times.

More:Who invaded the US Capitol on Jan. 6? Criminal cases shed light on offenses

What Republicans are saying: Some blast committee as illegitimate, partisan

House Republicans have blasted the committee as illegitimate, partisan and a sham because of how it was set up.

The heart of the complaint is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., refused to seat GOP Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio on the panel. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., then pulled his nominees rather than have her vet them. Pelosi then appointed nine members – including GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – rather than the 13 authorized.

Federal courts have upheld the panel’s authority repeatedly. But Republicans argue the one-sided appointments mean there will be no meaningful cross-examination of witnesses or alternate views presented during hearings.

What we don’t know about Jan. 6:What Trump’s family told the committee, whether attack was organized

Biden plans to watch hearings

President Joe Biden is expected to watch some of Thursday’s hearing despite hosting the Summit of the Americas in California, according to White House chief of staff Ron Klain.

Biden waived executive privilege to give the committee access to Trump administration documents as part of the investigation.

“These are important hearings,” Klain told MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” on Wednesday. “He believes in executive privilege generally, but there is no executive privilege to overthrow the government of the United States. There is no executive privilege to protect plans on an insurrection.”

What kind of evidence does the committee have?

The panel collected more than 100,000 documents and more than 1,000 witnesses cooperated in the inquiry. Pictures and thousands of hours of video from security cameras and body-worn cameras on police officers illustrate how the violent mob smashed its way into the Capitol.

“People have gotten information in snippets over the course of a year plus, but the fact is that we’re going to tell the story in a coherent thread through the hearings,” said a committee member, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va. “It was a tragic event for our country that there were villains that day, of course. But there were people who were heroic, who through their actions really prevented a much worse outcome.”