CBS News will broadcast the hearing as a Special Report beginning at 8 p.m. ET hosted by Norah O’Donnell. Committee aides said Wednesday that the hearing will focus on Trump’s actions between 1:10 p.m. ET, when he finished speaking at the Ellipse, and 4:17 p.m. ET, when a taped statement was released from the Rose Garden calling on the rioters to go Home. According to aides, the committee will argue that it refused to act to defend the Capitol, even as mobs vandalized the building in an effort to stop vote counting. Former President Donald Trump speaks in a video report as the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing to release its findings Monday, June 13, 2022. Susan Walsh/AP The committee will also present additional information about Trump’s return to the White House against his wishes after the Ellipse speech ends, an aide said. The aide did not say whether the committee interviewed Anthony Ornato, deputy chief of staff for operations, or Secret Service agent Robert Engel, whom White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson also mentioned when she testified to the committee that Trump had requested his arrest . in the Capitol during the rebellion. A source close to the Secret Service told CBS News after Hutchinson’s testimony that Engel and the driver of a Secret Service vehicle on Jan. 6 are prepared to testify under oath that neither man was physically assaulted or assaulted by Trump and that the former president never flew. for steering the vehicle, as Hutchinson claimed. Hutchinson testified that she had called Ornato to make sure there was no plan for Trump to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6. A committee aide said Thursday’s hearing will outline who was talking to Trump, what those people were urging him to do and when he was told what was going on. Those details will be given during the testimony of people who spoke with the former president and people in the West Wing who knew what he and his inner circle were doing. The testimony will be in the form of video and audio recordings as well as live witnesses. Committee aides have yet to publicly confirm who Thursday’s witnesses will be. CBS News confirmed through a source familiar with the committee that Matthew Pottinger, a former National Security Council official, and Sarah Matthews, a former deputy White House press secretary, are set to testify. Both resigned soon after the attack. The hearing will also cover how law enforcement turned the tide on rioters around 4 p.m. later that day and the aftermath the day after the attack. “One of the main points we’re going to make here is that President Trump had the power to withdraw the mob here. He was probably the only person who could have withdrawn the mob and he chose not to,” said a committee aide. . Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said Tuesday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and will not attend Thursday’s hearing. Aides said Wednesday that he will preside over the hearing remotely. Representatives Elanie Luria and Adam Kinzinger will lead the presentation. Jan. 6 committee staff confirmed Wednesday that the committee had received only one text message from the Secret Service. The committee had subpoenaed texts from Jan. 5 and 6, but a Department of Homeland Security supervisor told lawmakers last week that the Secret Service had deleted texts from that period. The Secret Service claimed that some phone data had been inadvertently deleted as part of a pre-planned system migration and said that all deleted texts were “deemed permanently deleted.” CBS News has confirmed that Secret Service officials received multiple official email communications instructing officials to back up relevant texts, emails and communications prior to immigration. At least one of these emails was sent in December 2020. Former Trump White House staffer Garrett Ziegler testified privately before the committee on Tuesday. Ziegler was an aide to trade adviser Peter Navarro, who has been charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena to appear before the committee. Kinzinger told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the hearing will “open people’s eyes in a big way” about Trump’s behavior. “I can’t necessarily say that the motivations behind every piece of information that we know we’re going to be able to explain, but it’s going to open people’s eyes a lot,” Kinzinger said. He added, “I’ll give you this preview: the president hasn’t been doing much, but he’s been happily watching TV during that time frame.” Kinzinger, a Republican, urged the American people, and his GOP colleagues in particular, to “watch this with an open mind” and ask, “Is this the kind of strong leader you really think you deserve?” This will be the eighth hearing the select committee will hold this summer and the ninth overall. An associate said Wednesday that “there is potential for future hearings,” especially around the release of a report on the investigation later this year. Previous public hearings have focused on the rioters’ mobilization on Capitol Hill, Trump’s speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 ahead of the uprising and his desire to unite with his supporters. The panel also detailed Trump’s post-Election Day lobbying campaigns to push his baseless campaign claims on Pence, the Justice Department, state lawmakers and local election officials. The hearings revealed new details about a plan to field alternate electors who support Trump in seven battleground states won by President Joe Biden. Thompson said last week that the Justice Department had requested information about the plan. “The only issue we’ve gotten them into is the list of fraudulent voters that was submitted,” Thompson told reporters last week. “This is the first tranche we have been discussing with them.”
Rebecca Kaplan, Nikole Killion and Nicole Sganga contributed to this report.