The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is holding about a half a dozen public hearings this month on what it has learned so far.
In the fifth of seven planned hearings, the bipartisan panel will focus on former President Donald Trump's pressure on the Department of Justice to help him overturn the 2020 election. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, will lead Thursday's hearing.
Watch it live here, beginning at 3 p.m. EST:
Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue are among Thursday's witnesses. Both refused to give in to Trump's efforts to get the DOJ to advance his fraudulent claims of voter fraud and overturn the election.
Also to appear in Thursday's hearing is Steven Engel, who headed DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. Engel was one of the officials who told the former president he would have no choice but to quit if Trump replaced the acting attorney general with environmental lawyer Jeffrey Bossert Clark. Clark was reportedly more willing to go along with Trump's fraudulent claims of a stolen election.
Select committee member Rep. Adam Schiff said panel members are mindful of how best to capture Americans' attention to rehash the insurrection that took place well over a year ago. To that end, he said he expects the hearings will integrate witness testimony, video footage, documentary evidence and audio tapes "to make it very engaging."
"I think we're going to use whatever resources we can to make the presentations as compelling as possible," Schiff told NPR. "We need to get across the danger to our democracy, how close we came to losing it, how many multiple lines of effort there were to overturn the election, how close they came to succeeding."
The committee is expected to release its findings in a report in September.
For the latest updates on tonight's hearing head over to NPR's live blog. NPR will also broadcast live special coverage of the hearings. Find your local member station or use the NPR One app to listen.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.