January 6 committee flooded with new evidence

Hours of footage from documentary filmmaker granted extensive access to Donald Trump and his inner circle before and after January 6 now available

Former president Donald Trump, his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner. Getty Images / AFP

The US House of Representatives committee investigating last year's attack on the Capitol announced a break from its televised hearings on Wednesday after receiving a glut of new video footage of Donald Trump and his family from a documentary filmmaker.

Chairman Bennie Thompson told reporters during last Thursday's hearing on Mr Trump's alleged attempts to corrupt the Justice Department would be the last until two further hearings “later in July”.

Mr Thompson did not elaborate on the timetable but said further hearings after the two in July are “always a possibility”.

“The timeline of the hearings is driven, and continues to be driven, by the investigation. The select committee continues to receive relevant new evidence that we think is very important to the investigation,” an aide to the panel said.

“It's important that our members [and] investigators take the time needed to assess that information and figure out how we're going to use that information as we continue to make our presentation to the American people.”

The new evidence includes documents from the National Archive and several new leads given to a tip line since the televised hearings began earlier in June.

The most prized haul, however, will be hours of footage from documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, who was granted extensive access to Mr Trump and his inner circle before and after January 6.

Mr Holder began filming on the campaign trail in September 2020, Politico reported, and had substantial access to Mr Trump, his grown-up children and his vice president, Mike Pence, for months.

Congress goes on a two-week recess for the July 4 holiday starting next week.

When members return in the second week of July, they are expected to dedicate at least some of the remaining hearings to the radicalisation of extremists who stormed the Capitol as well as the culture of political violence on the far right.

In a sign of heightened political tension surrounding the hearings, The New York Times reported an increase in violent threats against members of the panel and added that they would likely receive a security detail.

Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the nine-member committee, revealed a letter addressed to his wife at the weekend that threatened to execute the couple and their five-month-old baby.

“There is violence in the future, I'm going to tell you,” Mr Kinzinger told ABC on Sunday. “And until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can't expect any differently.”

Committee vice-chairwoman Liz Cheney halted attending large, public events long ago due in part to concerns over her safety as she fends off a primary challenge to her Wyoming seat in Congress.

Federal agents issued subpoenas over the insurrection on Wednesday, raiding the homes of two people involved in the plot to overturn the election, The Washington Post reported.

One Trump supporter had reportedly tried to impersonate an official elector — the people chosen by the winning party in each state to choose the president under America's Electoral College voting system.

The other raid target worked on Mr Trump's drive to invalidate the election in Arizona and New Mexico. Other participants in Mr Trump's reported plot received subpoenas.

The action came after officials in Arizona and Georgia appeared on Tuesday before the select committee's fourth public hearing this month to outline Mr Trump's efforts to cling to power, which involved bullying local officials and poll workers, publishing their personal details and defaming them.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.