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LIVE COVERAGE: Watch the House Select Committee hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection

Congress
Annette Elizabeth Allen
/
NPR

Five in-person witnesses will testify publicly before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Monday, as the panel continues making its case that former President Donald Trump was responsible for the deadly riot.

Today's hearing is focused on the "the decision by the former president to ignore the will of the voters, declare victory on election he lost, spread claims of fraud and then decide to ignore the rulings of the
courts when the judgment of the courts didn't go his way," House select committee aides told reporters on Sunday. The hearing will look at the "political apparatus to drive fundraising" to bring in hundreds of
millions of dollars between Election Day and Jan. 6, they said.

WATCH IT LIVE HERE:

And they said the committee will present a "great deal" of new information — chiefly in the forms of records and depositions.

Monday's hearing will feature two panels of witnesses.

The first panel was scheduled to feature Bill Stepien, Trump's campaign manager from July 2020 through the election. He withdrew from the hearings Monday morning citing a family emergency and will be represented there by an attorney. The Stepien attorney will appear alongside former Fox News political director Chris Stirewalt, who was ousted following the election.

On the second panel is veteran GOP election lawyer Ben Ginsberg, who was outspoken against Trump's
election lies even before the 2020 vote. He will testify with BJay Pak, the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia who abruptly resigned following the leak of the recorded phone call in which Trump pressured state officials in Georgia to "find" enough votes to overturn President Biden's victory there. During the call, Trump referred to a "never-Trump U.S. attorney" in Georgia, though he didn't explicitly refer to Pak.

Also appearing will be Al Schmidt, a Republican former city commissioner in Philadelphia who was outspoken in the days and weeks after the election defending the city's administration of the vote as Trump allies launched unfounded allegations of fraud and legal action that failed to show any widespread issues with the vote count. A Trump campaign case against Philadelphia officials was dismissed by a federal judge nominated by former President George W. Bush after acknowledging
their accusation that Republican observers had been barred from the city's ballot-counting venue was false.