‘Trump refused to act’: Prime-time January 6 committee hearing will focus on ex-president’s inaction during riot

The House January 6 select committee will use Thursday’s prime-time hearing — the last in the eight-part series it has been conducting since 9 June — to examine what former president Donald Trump did after his Secret Service detail returned him to the White House while a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in hopes of preventing certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Select committee staffers have been referring to the 8pm EST session as the “187 minutes” hearing because it will cover what Mr Trump did between when his speech to a rally on the Ellipse ended at approximately 1.10 pm on January 6 to roughly 4.17 pm, when he recorded a videotaped statement asking his riotous supporters to go home.

“The story we're going to tell tomorrow is that in that time, President Trump refused to act ... as a violent mob stormed the Capitol with the aim of stopping the counting of the electoral votes and blocking the transfer of power,” said a select committee aide who briefed reporters on plans for the hearing.

“What we'll get into tomorrow is what happened when … President Trump … was returned to the White House against his wishes. We're going to demonstrate who was talking to him and what they were urging him to do in that time period. We're going to talk about when he was made aware of what was going on. We're going to hear testimony from individuals who spoke to the president, we're going to hear testimony from individuals who were in the West Wing who were aware of what the President was doing, what his aides were doing, what his family [and] his allies were doing, and ultimately show that despite pleas from people inside the White House, from people on Capitol Hill [and] from allies elsewhere, the President didn't tell his supporters to leave the Capitol and go home until 4.17 pm,” the aide added.

Committee staffers have stressed that Thursday’s presentation — which is set to be led by Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger and Virginia Representative Elaine Luria — will zero in on the fact that Mr Trump clearly had the ability to call off the mob he’d summoned to Washington, but instead chose to do nothing.

While the panel has refused to confirm the identities of the witnesses who will testify Thursday evening, the select committee is expected to hear evidence from Sarah Matthews, a former deputy White House press secretary, and former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger. Both Ms Matthews and Mr Pottinger quit the Trump administration in the hours following the pro-Trump riot.

The Thursday evening session will be the final instalment in a series which began last month following a year-long investigation by the nine-member panel. But a committee aide said more hearings could be scheduled later this year, including sessions meant for unveiling an interim report the panel is expected to deliver.

“I would say … nothing's off the table,” the aide said. “I think our members have all indicated that there is potential for future hearings”.