Final hearings on pro-Trump Capitol riot mob to take place in July

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot will schedule its final two public hearings in July, rather than in June as originally expected, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Wednesday.

Thompson suggested that new evidence prompted the committee to revise its schedule. A select committee aide told CNBC that the panel “continues to receive additional evidence relevant to our investigation” into the Capitol riot, and that it will announce dates and times for the final hearings “soon.”

The committee’s fifth public hearing, which is set to center on how former President Donald Trump pressured the Department of Justice to aid his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, is still scheduled for Thursday afternoon, Thompson confirmed to reporters at the Capitol.

“And the next two hearings will be later in July,” he said.

In those hearings, the committee aims to show how Trump illegally directed a violent mob toward the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and then failed to take quick action to quell the attack once it began. The panel’s vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said earlier this month that those final two hearings would take place in June.

Committee members have made clear that their investigation is ongoing, and that this summer’s spate of public hearings represent only the initial findings from the nearly yearlong investigation into the pro-Trump insurrection at the Capitol.

The committee is still receiving new information and tips, reportedly including never-before-seen documentary footage from a filmmaker with access to Trump and his family before and after the riot. The investigators also continue to seek cooperation from key witnesses, including former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The panel aims to produce a final report on its findings by the fall, Thompson has said.