The Democratic-led committee investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has a number of key decisions it needs to reach, including a possible criminal referral of former President Donald Trump, before its authorization runs out at the end of the year.
The committee is set to hold more public hearings this month, with reports it could come as early as Sept. 28. However, questions remain about how it will resolve its unfinished business, who will be interviewed, and what further hearings could look like as the November midterm elections rapidly approach.
Below, we answer some of the key questions based on what is known right now and forecast some of the big decisions yet to be made.
MIKE PENCE EXPECTED TO TESTIFY BEFORE JAN. 6 COMMITTEE, MEMBER SAYS
HOW MANY MORE HEARINGS?
The committee has held eight public hearings, with the first July 2021 hearing kicking things off with testimony from four police officers who responded to the riot. The eighth public hearing so far was held the same month one year later. The committee has reportedly interviewed 1,000 witnesses and collected more than 130,000 documents thus far.
The committee’s authorization runs out at the end of this Congress, and Republicans are likely to keep the committee shut down if they win a House majority this November.
“I don’t think we know for sure yet,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said of the hearings in an interview with Time. “My guess would be that it’s in the neighborhood of two or three. … I would expect at least one hearing on the continuing threats to democracy in America.”
The committee is expected to hold another public hearing this month, which could be on Sept. 28, according to Punchbowl News, with the members meeting Tuesday to hash things out.
Raskin told a local Democratic club online last week that the committee will be holding “at least two more blockbuster hearings” and said the committee is “kind of like Cinderella” since its mission will not be renewed in the likely event of a Republican takeover of the House.
WHAT WILL THE REPORT SAY?
The 2021 legislation establishing the committee allowed for an interim report and said the committee is required to “issue a final report to the House containing such findings, conclusions, and recommendations.” Furthermore, Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) repeatedly suggested that the committee would release an interim report this summer ahead of the final report, but that has not happened, and it is not clear it will.
“Well, certainly by the end of the year because we’re like Cinderella at midnight,” Raskin told CBS News about when the final report might come. “Our license runs out at the end of the year, but under House Resolution 503, that’s a significant part of our responsibility — to report to the American people.”
WHAT HAPPENS TO TRUMP, AND WILL THE COMMITTEE MAKE A CRIMINAL REFERRAL?
The committee has not made a final decision on what sort of criminal referral may be made to the Justice Department.
“We’ll make a decision as a committee about it,” Cheney told ABC News. “The Justice Department doesn’t have to wait for the committee to make a criminal referral. There could be more than one criminal referral.”
WHO ELSE COULD SPEAK?
The committee thus far seems noncommittal on attempting to compel Trump’s testimony.
“I don’t want to make any announcements about that this morning. So let me just leave it there,” Cheney told ABC News in August when asked if the committee would seek Trump’s testimony before ending its work, though she said it was possible. “Yes, I mean, I don’t — again, I don’t want to get in front of committee deliberations about that. I do think it’s very important, as I said in the first hearing or the second hearing. You know, his interactions with our committee will be under oath.”
“Look, Donald Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t mind not telling the truth — let’s just put that mildly. He lies all the time. I wouldn’t put it past him to even lie under oath,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told CBS News in July. “So I’m not sure what the value is there.”
Cheney did say last month that she was hopeful Pence would talk to the committee soon.
“We’ve been in discussions with his counsel,” Cheney said. “Look, he played a critical role on Jan. 6, if he had succumbed to the pressure that Donald Trump was putting on him, we would have had a much worse constitutional crisis. And I think that he has clearly … expressed concerns about executive privilege, which, you know, I have tremendous respect.”
Cheney added: “I would hope that he will understand how important it is for the American people to know every aspect of the truth about what happened that day.”
“If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it,” Pence said during a political event in August. “But you heard me mention the Constitution a few times this morning. Under the Constitution, we have three co-equal branches of government, and any invitation to be directed to me, I would have to reflect on the unique role I was serving in as vice president. It would be unprecedented in history for a vice president to be summoned to testify on Capitol Hill.”
The committee also issued subpoenas to five Republican House members in May, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is expected to be speaker of the House if Republicans win in November, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who would become chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL).
The Republicans are fighting those subpoenas, and it remains to be seen how that battle will be resolved.
The committee has also sought testimony from Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, related to text messages that she sent to Trumpworld figures, including then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, urging them to contest the results of the 2020 election.
Her lawyer, Mark Paoletta, said in June that there was “no sufficient basis” for her testimony. But she said in June that she “can’t wait to clear up misconceptions. … I look forward to talking to them.”
Cheney told CNN in July: “We certainly hope that she will agree to come in voluntarily, but the committee is fully prepared to contemplate a subpoena if she does not. I hope it doesn’t get to that. I hope she will come in voluntarily.”
The committee sent a letter to former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich in September, claiming, “The Committee has obtained information indicating that you have knowledge about former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and we write to seek your voluntary cooperation.”
Gingrich told Fox News on Monday that “my attorneys are working all that out.” He added: “I’m not directly engaged with the committee, but I will say there’s never been a more blatant misuse of the Justice Department this close to an election.”
The committee also subpoenaed Secret Service records in July following testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
WHAT HAVE WE HEARD SO FAR?
So far, the committee has only shared a limited number of witness interview transcripts with the Justice Department as it conducts its own criminal inquiry into the Capitol riot. The Justice Department said last week that more than 870 defendants have been arrested related to the Capitol riot, including more than 265 people charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
The committee notably highlighted comments from former Attorney General William Barr during a June hearing.
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“I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bulls***,” Barr told the committee.
Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter and a former senior adviser in his White House, was asked by the committee about Barr’s conclusions and said in a video played by the committee, “It affected my perspective. I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”
