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ABC News
ABC News
National
Tom Williams, with wires

The January 6 Capitol riot committee has announced a surprise hearing due to new evidence — here's what we know

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson says earlier hearings led to "an influx of new information". (AP: Susan Walsh)

The committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol building has announced its sixth hearing will take place this week, which is sooner than first expected.

Five hearings have already been held into last year's deadly attack when former president Donald Trump's supporters stormed Congress while it was formalising Joe Biden's election victory.

With Congress now in recess for two weeks, the committee had not been expected to hold additional hearings until July.

But in a statement, the committee said it had called its sixth hearing early "to present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony".

Here's what we know about the new hearing and what was covered in the earlier ones. 

When will the sixth hearing take place?

The abruptly announced new hearing will take place in Washington DC at 1pm local time on Tuesday, June 28 — that's 3am AEST Wednesday, June 29.

The committee was planning to hold eight hearings in total, and originally planned to hold the sixth one next month.

It's unclear exactly how long the sixth hearing will go for, but the committee says it will again be live streamed.

The committee is using things such as live interviews, video exhibits and footage from January 6 to detail what it has learned. (AP: J. Scott Applewhite)

What will the hearing be about? And who will testify?

The committee has shared very little detail about the sixth hearing, aside from the fact it will be presenting some new evidence and hearing from witnesses.

A spokesperson for the committee had no comment on the focus of the hearing or the witnesses who will testify.

The panel's chairman, Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, previously said it would hold additional hearings after the first five.

It was recently revealed that the committee has privately interviewed British filmmaker Alex Holder, who was documenting Mr Trump's final weeks in office.

Mr Holder handed over footage which includes videos of Mr Trump and former vice-president Mike Pence during the 2020 campaign trail, from before and after the January 6 insurrection.

It is unclear if Mr Holder's footage will be discussed in the sixth hearing, or if he will testify.

A lawyer for Mr Holder declined to comment.

Trump's election attorney says FBI seized his phone

One recent development that has piqued people's interest is that John Eastman — Mr Trump's election attorney, who has been scrutinised in the committee hearings despite not publicly testifying — has claimed that federal agents seized his mobile phone last week.

In a federal court filing, Mr Eastman said the agents took his phone as he left a restaurant last Wednesday evening, the same day federal law enforcement officials carried out similar activities around the US as part of investigations into Mr Trump's allies.

Mr Eastman said the agents who approached him appeared to be serving a warrant from the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General.

The filing claimed Mr Eastman was "forced" to provide biometric data to unlock the phone.

John Eastman (left) claims FBI agents seized his phone and "forced" him to unlock it. (House Select Committee via AP)

Mr Eastman has asked a federal judge to tell the Justice Department to return his property, destroy records it had obtained and block investigators from being allowed to access the phone.

It is unclear whether any evidence from the phone will be presented to the January 6 committee, but it has already heard testimony that Mr Eastman put forward a last-ditch effort to challenge the 130-year-old Electoral Count Act, which governs the process for tallying the election results in Congress.

The panel has also played video showing Mr Eastman repeatedly invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination while being interviewed by the committee.

Mr Eastman had sought to be "on the pardon list", according to an email he sent to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani that was shared by the committee.

What happened at the previous hearings?

The panel's previous five hearings have been laying out Mr Trump's pressure campaign on various institutions of power in the weeks leading up to the January 6 joint session of Congress.

The committee has detailed the pressure from Mr Trump and his allies on former vice president Mike Pence, on the states which were certifying Mr Biden's win, and on the Justice Department.

The panel has used things such as live interviews, video testimony of private witness interviews and footage of the January 6 attack to detail what it has learned.

What happens next?

Lawmakers said last week that two hearings in July would focus on domestic extremists who breached the Capitol on January 6, as well as what Mr Trump was doing as the violence unfolded.

The US Justice Department is also conducting its own investigation of the attack, including whether there was a plot to advance alternative slates of fake electors in battleground states with the goal of overturning the election.

ABC/wires

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