The announcement was shrouded in secrecy, with even committe staff kept out of the loop.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol said Monday it will hold a surprise hearing on Tuesday to “present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”
It was not immediately clear whom the committee plans to interview and what topics lawmakers intend to focus on. The decision announced on Monday was shrouded in secrecy, with staff and committee members explicitly asked to go dark and not speak with media, according to two people involved with the investigation. The news was so closely guarded that even some senior committee staff and aides to lawmakers were kept out of the loop as of Monday afternoon. Three people familiar with the investigation said that the secrecy is in part due to credible security threats to a witness. The committee has remained in negotiations with potential witnesses to appear publicly while the hearings have been ongoing. Vice chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) made an appeal to former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone after revealing that the committee had evidence that he and “his office tried to do what was right” and “tried to stop a number of” former president Donald Trump’s plans for Jan.
