The House Jan. 6 committee plans to showcase testimony from a British documentary filmmaker and U.S. Capitol Police officer who was injured in the riot as part of its primetime hearing on Thursday.
Testimony from both witnesses is likely to focus on specific groups that the committee has labeled “far-right extremists” that breached the Capitol during the attack.
Nick Quested, a British filmmaker who filmed members of the Proud Boys entering the Capitol during the riot, has participated in closed-door interviews with the committee in recent weeks and has handed over some of his footage to the panel.
In addition to filming the protest and ensuing riot at the Capitol, Mr. Quested says he witnessed planning efforts by the Proud Boys in advance of the attack. He also filmed a meeting between Proud Boys’ leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and Elmer “Stewart” Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, in an underground garage in Washington on the night before the riot.
Both groups were present during the riot.
Mr. Tarrio and four other top leaders of the Proud Boys were indicted Monday on federal charges for seditious conspiracy.
Eleven members of the Oath Keepers have also been indicted on federal seditious conspiracy charges, of which two have pleaded guilty. Mr. Rhodes and nine other members of the group have pled not guilty.
Mr. Quested’s participation in Thursday’s hearing was first reported by The New York Times.
Caroline Edwards, who was injured during the attack as rioters entered the building, is also expected to appear before the committee, a person familiar with the committee’s plans told the Associated Press.
Ms. Edwards suffered a head injury during the attack.
The committee formally announced the witnesses late Tuesday.
The prime-time hearing will be the first of a series of public hearings at which the panel will unpack the findings from its nearly year-long probe.
The Democrat-led committee held a hearing in July, less than a month after it was formed, in which the lawmakers heard from four police officers — Pfc. Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the U.S. Capitol Police, and officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges of the Metropolitan Police Department — all of whom were at the Capitol during the riot.
The committee also held brief public proceedings in which the members voted to hold witnesses in contempt for failing to comply with the investigation.
The committee hired former ABC News executive James Goldston to help shape its rollout of evidence on Thursday into a captivating television experience.
Mr. Goldston’s work for the committee was first disclosed by Axios, which reported that Mr. Goldston is tasked with shaping Thursday’s 8 p.m. hearing into a “blockbuster investigative special” designed to grab the attention of journalists and the American public.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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