Jan. 6 committee holds first prime-time hearing

The House select committee played a clip of recorded testimony from former President Donald Trump's daughter and former White House adviser Ivanka Trump during their first prime-time hearing.

In the clip, Ivanka Trump comments on then-Attorney General Bill Barr's statement that the Justice Department found no sufficient evidence to overturn the election.

Ivanka Trump’s testimony that she accepted Barr’s statement stands in stark contrast to her father who continues to falsely insist the 2020 election was stolen and sought to use unfounded claims of widespread election fraud to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate electoral victory. 

Despite testifying that she accepted what Barr said, Ivanka Trump did still accompany her father to the Jan. 6 rally at the White House Ellipse, which preceded the US Capitol attack. 

Ivanka Trump met virtually with the committee in April for nearly eight hours and CNN previously reported that she corroborated critical testimony from other witnesses who said the then-President was reluctant to try to call off the rioters despite being asked to do so.

Watch the moment:

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chair of the House select committee, touted the seditious conspiracy charges that are pending against members of far-right extremist groups who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

As of Thursday, the Justice Department has charged 17 alleged members of these groups with seditious conspiracy, and three of them have pleaded guilty. (The other defendants deny the allegations.)

What you need to know: For context, this is a tiny slice of the overall pool of more than 800 Americans facing charges related the Capitol riot.

About 98% of defendants are not charged with seditious conspiracy, though hundreds of alleged rioters are charged with a different felony – obstructing an official proceeding, namely the joint session of Congress that was convened on Jan. 6, 2021 to certify President Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.

Former President Donald Trump had a "sophisticated seven-point plan" to overturn the 2020 presidential election over the course of several months, Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney said, detailing how the panel plans to use its future hearings to tackle each part of the scheme.

Cheney did not detail the specific points of the plan in her opening statement. She said that the rioters who breached the Capitol and fought with police were motivated by Trump's actions falsely claiming that the election was stolen from him.

"President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack," Cheney said, echoing the statement she made in 2021 when she voted to impeach Trump.

A committee source later provided CNN the following description of the "sophisticated seven-part plan":

"President Trump oversaw a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the 2020 election and prevent the transition of presidential power.

These are initial findings and the Select Committee's investigation is still ongoing. In addition, the Department of Justice is currently working with cooperating witnesses, and has disclosed to date only certain of the information it has identified from encrypted communications and other sources."

The House Jan. 6 committee is in possession of witness testimony detailing how former President Donald Trump angrily resisted when advisers urged him to put out a statement calling off the rioters as the violence was unfolding on Jan. 6, 2021, the panel’s Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney revealed tonight.

Cheney said the panel will present testimony from former White House officials that Trump “didn’t really want to put anything out,” telling those carrying out the violence to stop or his supporters to leave.

Cheney also described testimony from a witness who detailed Trump’s animosity toward then-Vice-President Mike Pence when those around him voiced concerns about the rioters chanting to hang him.

What Cheney presented tonight goes further than what was known about the committee’s focus on Trump’s inaction during the riot and underscores how he actively resisted calls from advisers to help put an end to it.

Cheney has previously characterized Trump’s inaction on Jan. 6 during those 187 minutes as a “dereliction of duty” and what the former President was doing, and not doing, is expected to be a key area of focus during the committee’s public hearings.

As is Trump’s anger at Pence for refusing to help overturn the 2020 election outcome.

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, laid the blame for the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol squarely at former President Donald Trump's feet during her opening statement.

"On this point, there is no room for debate," Cheney said. "Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them — that the election was stolen, and that he was the rightful President."

House select committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said the purpose of the panel's hearings is to remind Americans of "the reality" of what happened during the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol.

In his opening remarks, Thompson who is a Democrat from Mississippi, said he came to the committee "as an American who swore an oath to defend the Constitution."

The chairman said the work of the committee is "to do much more than just look backward."

"Our democracy remains in danger. The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over," he said.

Documentarian Nick Quested, who was embedded with the Proud Boys up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, is being compelled to testify under a subpoena tonight, he reveals in his opening statement.

"I am here today pursuant to a House subpoena," the statement reads.

"I documented the crowd turn from protesters to insurrectionists," Quested said in his statement.

Quested noted he also provided his video footage to authorities.

Sandra Garza, the partner of US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered strokes and died of natural causes one day after responding to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, said she hopes the hearings show "Trump is responsible for instigating that event that day."

Garza is at the hearing and accompanied by members of the Capitol Police, including Harry Dunn, as well as retired DC police officer Michael Fanone.

Asked if she feels that the hearing may serve as some justice for Sicknick, Garza said she was hopeful.

“I hope so. Justice for me, for Brian, would be having Donald Trump in prison, but it doesn't seem like that ever happens. The man seems to escape justice time and time again. But maybe today would change that. That would be a wonderful thing. I don't know. We'll see,” she said. 

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is speaking now in the January 6 committee hearing.

Cheney is the vice chairwoman of the committee and is one of two Republicans on the panel appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all five of his selections because Pelosi would not accept two of his picks.

Cheney has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach him. House Republicans have punished her for her public opposition to Trump by removing her as their party's conference chairwoman in May of last year and she faces a Trump-endorsed challenger in the GOP primary in her reelection bid. That primary is in August.

Cheney told CBS in an interview that aired over the weekend that she believes the January 6 attack was a conspiracy, saying when asked, "I do. It is extremely broad. It's extremely well organized. It's really chilling."

Read about the other eight committee members here.