Jan. 6 Panel Delays Hearing as Hurricane Nears Florida

'We’re praying for the safety of all those in the storm’s path'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 27, 2022 4:16 PM CDT
Jan. 6 Panel Delays Hearing as Hurricane Nears Florida
The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 21, 2022.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol announced Tuesday that it had postponed a hearing scheduled for Wednesday as a hurricane hurtled toward the Florida coast. The committee had planned to hold what was likely to be its final investigative hearing Wednesday afternoon, but members decided at the last minute to delay it as it became clear that Hurricane Ian was churning on a collision course toward Florida, where it was expected to strengthen into a catastrophic Category 4 storm, the AP reports.

"We’re praying for the safety of all those in the storm’s path," committee chairman Bennie Thompson and vice chair Liz Cheney said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "The Select Committee’s investigation goes forward and we will soon announce a date for the postponed proceedings." The committee had not yet provided a specific agenda for the Wednesday hearing, but Rep. Adam Schiff said over the weekend it would "tell the story about a key element of Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the election." This week's hearing was intended to close the series of public hearings the nine-member panel embarked on in early June.

Throughout eight hearings, the committee—comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans—sought to show the American public in great detail how Trump ignored many of his closest advisers and amplified his false claims of election fraud after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. During the August recess, congressional investigators continued to interview witnesses, including several of Trump's cabinet members, some of whom had discussed invoking the constitutional process in the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office after the attack on the Capitol. The committee is expected to turn over a comprehensive report by the end of the year that will include legislative reforms to help prevent a future attempt to subvert democracy. (More Jan. 6 hearings stories.)

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