Donald Trump faces renewed scrutiny as January 6 committee returns

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The committee investigating last years attack on the US Capitol will on Thursday show secret service emails and new video footage highlighting Donald Trumps role in the violence, aides say, in what is likely to be the panels final hearing before the midterm elections.

The bipartisan January 6 committees focus on Trump over eight sessions broadcast during the summer has already helped bring the former president to the forefront of the election campaign, which in turn has handed momentum to the Democrats.

Members hope Thursdays hearing will further damage Trumps reputation at least among Democrats and independent voters by showing how he ignored warnings about the violence his supporters were about to unleash.

One aide to the committee said: [Members will] be presenting a great deal of new documentary evidence…[including] information from the hundreds of thousands of pages that the United States secret service has produced in the committee pursuant to the committees subpoena.

We were going to focus on the former president’s state of mind and his involvement in these events as they unfolded, the person added. You will see a synthesis of some evidence we have already presented, with that new never-before-seen information, to illustrate Donald Trumps centrality.

Earlier this summer, the committee held eight live hearings outlining how Trump had been told repeatedly by many of those closest to him that he had lost the 2020 election, and yet still attempted to overturn the result.

Members have shown how he put pressure on state officials, the Department of Justice and members of Congress to sign up to a scheme to stop Congress certifying Joe Bidens victory.

Those hearings, which have featured live testimony from senior Republicans and carefully produced pieces of video footage, have resonated with the public, polls suggest.

Since the hearings began in June, Trump’s approval rating has dropped two percentage points to 42 percent, while the Democrats have gained two points in the polls to 45 percent. Pollsters say the hearings were among a number of factors including the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs Wade that have helped galvanize the Democratic base.

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Since the last hearing in July, the committee has continued to gather evidence, including witness testimony from Ginni Thomas, the Trump-supporting wife of the Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.

Ginni Thomas was in close contact with many of those around Trump in the period leading up to January 6. Her witness testimony was not videotaped, however, and aides would not say whether the transcript would be shown at Thursdays hearing.

Some legal experts say they still want to see more from the committee in the final hearing and the written report to come.

Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor, said: This process has been very valuable and interesting, but it has been a much more political process than I had anticipated.

Members have obviously been hampered by the fact that those around Trump have refused to discuss what he said and did on the day itself. The question about what Trump may have known about the plans for violence on that day is a very, very significant one.

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