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What to expect from second Capitol riot hearing as committee members call to charge Donald Trump

There will be at least six hearings this month. (Reuters: Leah Millis)

The second hearing into the US Capitol riots will take place overnight tonight (Australian time).

This time, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol will turn its focus on former US President Donald Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent.

Here's who will testify and what we can expect from tonight's hearing.

What will tonight's hearing focus on?

The second hearing will focus on Mr Trump's efforts to push his false claims of a rigged election despite multiple advisers telling him otherwise.

Committee vice chair Liz Cheney said evidence would show that Mr Trump "engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information" that the election had been stolen.

The panel touched on this theme in its first hearing, with a clip from former attorney-general Bill Barr testifying that he told president Trump, "in no uncertain terms, that I did not see evidence of fraud" that would have affected the election.

Donald Trump calls his claims the election was stolen from him the "Big Lie". (AP: Lincoln Journal Star/Kenneth Ferriera/File))

What time will it be on?

It'll start at 10am on Monday in Washington, which will be 12am AEST Tuesday for viewers in Australia.

The previous hearing was given a prime time slot of 8pm on Thursday night in the US but they've taken a different approach for the second hearing.

All of the hearings are being live streamed and, while most major US TV news networks will televise this hearing in full, Fox News is the only one that won't be streaming any of the hearings.

Who are the witnesses?

The committee announced that Mr Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, is among the witnesses scheduled to testify at this hearing. Mr Stepien has been subpoenaed for his public testimony.

Chris Stirewalt, the former political editor for Fox News will also testify.

Other witnesses will include:

  • Conservative Republican election attorney Ben Ginsberg
  • BJay Pak, who resigned as a US attorney in Atlanta as Mr Trump and his allies sought to overturn results of the election in Georgia
  • Al Schmidt, who was the only Republican on the city of Philadelphia's elections board and became a target of attacks by Mr Trump after he defended the integrity of the 2020 presidential vote.

Georgia and Pennsylvania were among states that backed Mr Trump in the 2016 election, but fell into his rival Joe Biden's column in 2020.

Those states have been a focus of Mr Trump's unfounded assertions of election fraud.

What's to come in later hearings?

Additional evidence is set to be released in hearings this week that will demonstrate how Mr Trump and some of his advisers pressured the Justice Department to embrace his false claims, and urged then-vice president Mike Pence to reject state electors and block the vote certification on January 6, 2021.

Next week's hearings will focus on the former president's efforts to pressure state legislators and state election officials to change the election results, before uncovering how Mr Trump summoned supporters to march on the Capitol and, when the violence was underway, failed to take immediate action to stop them.

What's the point of the hearings?

Members of the House committee said they have uncovered enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider an unprecedented criminal indictment against Mr Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Democratic committee member Adam Schiff said he would like the Justice Department to "investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump".

US Capitol riot hearing reveals new details

ABC/wires

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