The Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol meets on Thursday at 1 PM ET after a nearly two-month-long hiatus. Committee members say when they reconvene, there will be brand-new information to unpack about the probe conducted into the insurrection.
According to committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren, some of those details will zero in on former President Donald Trump’s ties to extremist groups and their affiliates. Lofgren told CNN this week that the break in public presentations gave investigators time to pore over a wealth of leads and assess “new material” that has emerged.
Zofgren said some of the information that will be presented on Thursday parsing out Trump’s intent in the runup to and on Jan. 6 will be “suprising” for viewers.
“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,” the California Democrat told CNN.
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Thursday’s hearing was delayed from its slated date in late September after Hurricane Ian came barreling through Florida.
Hurricane Ian may have waylaid the hearing, but it did not entirely encroach on the investigation’s interviewing of new witnesses. One of those witnesses was Ginni Thomas, the wife of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and an ardent supporter of Trump’s claims of a “stolen” 2020 election.
The New York Times reported on Sept. 29 that during her private session with the committee, Ginni Thomas continued to assert that the election was stolen. This was the reason she gave for inundating Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, with some 29 texts from November 2020 to January 2021, she said.
“Help this great president stand firm Mark!!!” Ginni Thomas wrote three days after the election was called for now-President Joe Biden. “You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
Her texts notably did not mention her husband by name. When she testified in September, Thomas was adamant that the line between her political advocacy and her husband’s role on the nation’s most powerful court was clear cut. They “never” spoke about pending cases before the Supreme Court, she said.
”It is laughable for anyone who knows my husband to think I could influence his jurisprudence — the man is independent and stubborn, with strong character traits of independence and integrity,” Thomas reportedly told the committee in September.
Regardless, the texts exposed Thomas’ connections to those in Trump’s orbit, or at least her confidence in her ability to inform the decisions of those closest to the 45th president. For one, Thomas urged Meadows to make the election fraud conspiracy theory-addled Sidney Powell the lead attorney in the president’s quest to overturn the election results in court. In another message sent on Nov. 13, Ginni Thomas appeared to reference Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, by his first name.
Powell and “her team” were being overwhelmed with “evidence of fraud,” Ginni Thomas wrote.
”Make a plan. Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down,” she added.
She attended the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 but has said that she left early due to the chilly weather.
She ultimately sat with the committee for a private session that reportedly stretched for nearly four hours. Lofgren said Thomas was not videotaped during her meeting with investigators. This was reportedly part of the terms the committee agreed to secure her testimony. Negotiations over her appearance played out for months.
How much of her testimony will factor into the hearing is uncertain, though Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson told reporters this week: “If there’s something of merit, it will be [in the hearing].”
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the panel is expected to share startling details from some of the Secret Service records it obtained. According to unnamed sources who spoke to the Post, those records are expected to corroborate what Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Meadows, told the investigatory committee this summer.
Hutchinson testified under oath in June that Trump was expressly warned that his supporters in the crowd around the Capitol on Jan. 6 had weapons. He insisted they be let through security check points anyway, she said, because he was concerned with the optics of the crowd size. Hutchinson also said that Trump knew they were armed after he urged Secret Service agents to take him to the Capitol immediately after his incendiary speech.
When his request went unfulfilled, Hutchinson said Trump physically lashed out at Bobby Engel, the agent driving him. According to Hutchinson, Secret Service agent turned White House Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato told her Trump tried to grab at Engel’s neck.
Hutchinson’s account was challenged by anonymous Secret Service sources. Ornato and Engel also disputed her testimony publicly and offered to meet with the committee for an interview under oath. According to the Post, the committee did not “re-interview” either official. Ornato reportedly sat for a taped interview earlier this year.
Relations have been tense between the Secret Service and the committee for some time. The trove of agency records investigators now have—there are more than 1 million pages—was only handed over after the Secret Service revealed it had deleted key text messages specific to Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 among personnel. The deletion also occurred after the agency was explicitly told by Congress to preserve these records while a probe of the Capitol attack was underway.
With its focus on extremist elements swirling around the Trump White House, the public hearing on Thursday is also expected to cover connections to the insurrection involving GOP ally and Proud Boy adviser Roger Stone.
Documentary footage shot by Danish filmmakers who trailed Stone for nearly three years in the lead-up to Jan. 6 captured Stone’s declarations that Trump would be the winner of the 2020 election no matter the true outcome. The public may also get a glimpse into the activities of Steve Bannon, Trump’s short-lived White House strategist. Bannon will be sentenced on Oct. 21 on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the select committee. Each count carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison.
The committee is expected to issue a final report before the year is out. The report will be public, along with much source material the body has used over the course of its probe.
By Thursday, 644 days will have passed since the Capitol attack.