Jan. 6 panel sets surprise Tues. hearing

The House Jan. 6 panel announced Monday a surprise Tuesday hearing to “present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”

Scrapping plans to pause the explosive sessions until July, the committee abruptly announced plans to continue exposing former President Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election.

The subject of the hearing is so far unclear. A spokesman for the panel declined to comment on its substance.

Just last week, the panel said it would halt the hearings while it processes what Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) called a “deluge” of new information.

The hastily announced hearing raises speculation that the panel has obtained breakthrough new evidence or the cooperation of an important witness.

Recently, the committee obtained new footage of Trump and his inner circle taken both before and after Jan. 6, 2021, from British filmmaker Alex Holder.

Holder said last week that he had complied with a congressional subpoena to turn over all of the footage he shot in the final weeks of Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, including exclusive interviews with Trump, his children and then-Vice President Mike Pence while on the campaign trail.

It is uncertain if Holder’s footage is the subject of the hearing Tuesday, or if Holder himself will be there. Russell Smith, a lawyer for Holder, declined to comment.

The committee, which has held five hearing so far, has examined various aspects of Trump’s unconstitutional effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to President Biden, including ugly pressure campaigns on Pence, Republican state officials and even his own Justice Department.

The panel has previously said that future hearings would focus on the role of white nationalists and other right-wing extremists in the attack on the Capitol and Trump’s own failure to defend Congress against the onslaught.