Jan. 6 committee hearing set to reveal new evidence

A week after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a person warned a senior FBI official that a “sizable percentage of the employee population” of the agency “felt sympathetic to the group that stormed the Capitol,” according to an email made public Thursday.

The sender, whose name is redacted, told then-FBI Associate Deputy Director Paul Abbate that those FBI employees believed the riot was “no different than the [Black Lives Matter] protests of last summer,” the email shows.

The Jan. 13, 2021, message, titled “Internal Concerns,” was made public under the Freedom of Information Act, NBC News reported.

The writer listed several examples of alleged FBI sympathy with the rioters, including the claim that a “senior analyst from my first unity who retired less than 2 years ago has a Facebook page full of #StoptheSteal content.”

“These are not one-off events — they are representative of a larger group within the organization,” the email alleged.

The FBI did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the email.

— Kevin Breuninger

More than 1 million newly obtained electronic communications records from the Secret Service are expected to play a key role in helping committee members fill in details of President Donald Trump’s actions and his state of mind as protesters swarmed the Capitol.

Specifically, the records could paint a fuller picture of Trump’s effort to convince his security detail to take him to the Capitol following his speech at the Stop the Steal rally. The agents ultimately refused his directive, citing the danger it would pose to Trump’s safety, and brought the president back to the White House.

The records include “emails, radio transmissions, Microsoft Teams chat messages and exhibits that address aspects of planning, operations and communications surrounding Jan. 6,” a Secret Service spokesperson told NBC.

— Christina Wilkie

Shortly after the committee postponed the hearing in late September, investigators interviewed Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for about 3.5 hours.

Thomas, who goes by Ginni, had reportedly pushed Trump administration officials and others to try to challenge Biden’s electoral victory in 2020.

But it’s not clear if Thomas’ testimony will feature in Thursday’s hearing. And even if Thomas is heard, it’s unlikely she will be seen.

“I don’t think she was a key figure, necessarily,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said of Thomas in an MSNBC interview on Sunday.

Thomas was not videotaped during her interview with the committee, Lofgren said, explaining that was part of the agreement reached in exchange for her testimony.

“We may” hear from Thomas, Lofgren said. But “we did not video her interview, so it would be transcripts, if they’re going to use that. But we have plenty of other information as well.”

A committee aide previewing the hearing declined to say whether Thomas would be a part of the presentation, NBC reported.

— Kevin Breuninger

The hearing will touch on the “close ties between people in Trump world and some of these extremist groups,” committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren said in a CNN interview Tuesday.

But “that’s not the only thing the hearing will be about,” said Lofgren, D-Calif. “We’re going to be going through, really some of what we’ve already found, but augmenting with new material that we’ve discovered through our work throughout this summer.”

That involves focusing on Trump’s intentions, including “what he knew, what he did, what others did,” she said.

Asked to be more specific about the alleged ties between “Trump world” and the extremist groups, Lofgren said, “Let’s just say that the mob was led by some extremist groups, they plotted in advance what they were going to do, and those individuals were known to people in the Trump orbit.”

“I do think that it will be worth watching,” Lofgren said. “There’s some new material that, you know, I found as we got into it, pretty surprising.”

— Kevin Breuninger

The committee’s ninth hearing comes more than two months after the last presentation in late July, resurfacing the riot in the final sprint to the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

The hearing was originally scheduled for late last month, but the committee leaders opted to delay it on the eve of the event, citing the major hurricane bearing down on Florida at the time.

It now arrives less than four weeks before Election Day, where Democrats and Republicans are vying for control of both chambers of Congress and key positions of power at the state level.

The committee also faces an end-of-the-year deadline to submit a final report to the president and Congress containing its findings and policy recommendations.

— Kevin Breuninger