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Friday will see a hearing on the United States' January 6 insurrection. Here's what we know

The Capitol Riot happened on January 6, 2021, in Washington DC. (Reuters: Leah Millis)

After almost a year investigating the US Capitol riots, the House committee is about to go public with what it knows, holding rare, prime-time hearings on Thursday night (that's 10am Friday AEST).

Several members of the committee have already promised new and explosive information will come out, but exactly what that entails remains to be seen.

Here's what we know so far, and what we can expect to come out.

What are the January 6 committee public hearings?

On July 1, 2021, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack was formed through a vote.

The committee was tasked with investigating the insurrection, focusing on areas such as funding, motivations and former US president Donald Trump's involvement.

More than 1,000 people have been interviewed by the committee since then, with more than 125,000 documents reviewed.

Now the committee will lay out its findings in a series public hearings, and a number of never-before-seen photos and exhibits are expected to be revealed.

Protesters storm the US Capitol building.

When is the first hearing?

The first hearing will start at 10am on Friday, which is 8pm Thursday night in the US, and it'll take place in the US Capitol.

The rest of the hearings are expected to take place across the month of June.

A formal schedule has not yet been announced for the rest of the hearings but, according to The Washington Post, there could be as many as eight hearings in June before a final hearing in September.

The hearings are expected to be exhaustive, but not the final word from the committee.

It plans to release more reports on its findings — including recommendations on legislative reforms — ahead of the mid-term elections.

How can I watch it?

The committee will live stream its hearings and, while most major US TV news networks will televise it in full, Fox News is the only one that has made the call not to do so.

Fox News' approach is in marked contrast to the other major broadcast networks and cable news channels: It will air a post-hearing, two-hour special anchored by Fox News chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream.

Supporters of President Donald Trump climbed the west wall of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. (AP: Jose Luis Magana)

In a release, Fox News said the channel would cover the first in a series of House Select Committee public hearings as "news warrants", otherwise it will leave its regular line-up intact.

With Fox News out of the scheduled mix — aside from a post-hearing special — the most-watched cable network won't add its heft to coverage.

Corporate siblings — including Fox Business Network — will carry the hearing, but its peak audience is daytime and around 227,000 viewers on average.

In comparison, Fox News averaged 2 million prime-time viewers last week, and 1.3 million for the daytime.

What can we expect?

Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat on the committee, set high expectations back in April.

"Because it is a story of the most heinous and dastardly political offence ever organised by a president and his followers and his entourage in the history of the United States."

We know new witnesses are expected to testify at the hearings.

Only brief snippets of the testimony from the 1,000 people interviewed have been revealed to the public so far, mostly through court filings.

According to Claire Leavitt, visiting Assistant Professor of political science and policy studies at Grinnell College in the US, the committee is yet to provide a list of witnesses.

However, here's who she says are likely to appear:

  • former vice-president Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short
  • conservative lawyer and former adviser to Mr Pence,  J. Michael Luttig
  • former acting attorney-general Jeffrey Rosen
  • recorded testimony of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner may be showcased.
Donald Trump was impeached for "incitement of insurrection" in relation to the attacks. (AP: Alex Brandon)

The panel also has thousands of texts from former US President Donald Trump's final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and has talked to two of the former president's children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who were with their father the day of the attack.

Former network news executive James Goldston has joined the committee as an unannounced advisor, according to Axios.

Axios says the hearing will feature a mix of live witnesses and pre-produced video with different angles of unseen surveillance photos, as well as the committee's depositions.

What has happened in the lead-up?

So far, more than 800 people across the United States have been charged in relation to the January 6 riot, and federal authorities continue to make new arrests practically every week.

Leaders and members of far-right Proud Boys extremist group, as well as associates of the anti-government Oath Keepers militia group, were charged on Monday with seditious conspiracy for what federal prosecutors say was a coordinated attack on the US Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.

 Enrique Tarrio (left) and Joe Biggs are members of the Proud Boys. (Reuters: Jim Urquhart)

Three Oath Keepers have already pleaded guilty to the rarely used Civil War-era charge that calls for up to 20 years in prison. 

The indictment alleges that the Oath Keepers and their associates prepared in the weeks leading up to January 6 as if they were going to war, discussing things such as weapons and training.

ABC/wires

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