The U.S. House Select Committee investigating last year’s January 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol is preparing for its national debut of hearings, which will include videotaped interviews with Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, according to The Washington Post.
On June 9, select committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice-Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) will kick off a series of televised hearings with witnesses and taped interviews, including several White House officials. During the January 6 protests, both Ivanka Trump and Kushner were senior advisers in former President Donald Trump’s dministration.
Marco Rubio came out calling the committee a “joke” and implied it was designed to hurt Republicans.
According to the Post, the committee will attempt to place the violence that occurred during the protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in the context of a larger alleged scheme to overturn the presidential election, with accusations of former President Trump’s involvement “serving as the through-line.”
Per the Post, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ top aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, is anticipated to play a pivotal role in the hearings. Hutchinson is said to have already given the committee “extensive” information about Meadows’ alleged efforts to overturn the election.
The hearings will reportedly focus on President Trump — specifically what he did and said before and on January 6.
The hearings will be the culmination of more than a year of committee work that includes more than 1,000 interviews with witnesses and the examination of 125,000 documents. It will be the “most in-depth examination” of the events leading up to the January 6 protests, according to the Washington Post.
Mark Levin spoke on his show, Life, Liberty & Levin, about how the hearings allegedly violate the Constitution.
He said, “Congress has two responsibilities and only two. One to legislate; two, to appropriate. They have no authority whatsoever to conduct quote-unquote, ‘criminal investigations.’ That’s a separation of powers issue. That’s what the executive branch does.”
What will happen after the hearings are complete is unknown. The committee has the authority to refer cases for prosecution, but it is up to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to decide whether to file charges.
