Washington (AFP) - The US House committee investigating the January 6 assault on the US Capitol by Donald Trump supporters plans to hold a primetime hearing on Thursday.
The committee said the televised public hearing, its eighth, will take place at 8:00 pm in Washington (0000 GMT).The committee's opening hearing was also held in primetime, when television audiences are largest.
Committee members have said the session is expected to focus on Trump's actions on January 6, when thousands of his supporters stormed Congress in a bid to prevent certification of the results of the November 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
"You will hear that Donald Trump never picked up the phone that day to order his administration to help," Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican member of the committee, said at the last hearing.
"For multiple hours, Donald Trump refused to intervene to stop it," Cheney said.
During its seventh hearing on Tuesday, the committee made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans examined the impact of a tweet Trump sent on December 19, 2020 urging his supporters to descend on Washington on January 6 for a rally he promised would be "wild."
Members of right-wing militia groups and other Trump supporters saw the tweet from the then-president as a "call to arms," lawmakers said.
The committee is trying to determine whether Trump or his associates had a role in planning or encouraging the violent insurrection, and has subpoenaed numerous advisors and aides to the former president.
More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the attack on Congress, which left at least five people dead and 140 police officers injured.
Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the riot -- he was charged with inciting an insurrection -- but was acquitted by the Senate.
