U.S. Capitol riot panel to hold public hearings in June, chairman says

[April 27, 2022]  By Patricia Zengerle and Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress's official probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by Donald Trump's supporters plans to hold public hearings in June before issuing a final report in early autumn, its chairman said on Tuesday.

The House of Representatives Select Committee on Jan. 6 is "still looking at probably early fall" for releasing the final report, Representative Bennie Thompson told reporters.

The committee's leaders had previously said they were aiming for hearings in early spring.

The revised timetable would still allow the panel to release its findings before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress for the next two years of President Joe Biden's term.

Republicans, who are currently favored to reclaim control of the House in that election, are expected to shut the committee down if they do so.

The committee had previously planned to issue an interim report followed by a final report, but Thompson said the interim document is no longer in the works.

Chairperson U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) speaks as members of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol listen before a vote to approve a report recommending the U.S. House of Representatives cite Jeffrey Clark for criminal contempt of Congress during a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. December 1, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

"The progress is coming at a better pace than we anticipated, so in all probability the goal is to produce one report," Thompson, a Democrat, told reporters.

The committee is trying to establish then-President Trump's actions while thousands of his supporters attacked police, vandalized the Capitol and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives.

Congress had been meeting to count the electoral votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden victory in the November 2020 presidential election.

Some 800 people, including many Trump White House aides, have been interviewed in the committee's investigation.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone and Lincoln Feast.)

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