Jan. 6 hearing makes case Trump at 'center of this conspiracy' to overturn election

Thursday marked the House select committee's first prime-time hearing.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol held its first prime-time hearing on Thursday.

The hearing featured never-before-seen video footage and witness testimony as lawmakers aim to explain what they call a "coordinated, multi-step effort" by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.


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Biden calls Jan. 6 ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’

President Joe Biden said a lot of Americans will learn new details about the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers begin to reveal the findings of their 11-month investigation.

"One of the things that’s gonna occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on January the 6th," Biden said as he sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Summit of the Americas on Thursday afternoon.

"And as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution," Biden continued. "I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. And there's a lot of questions: who's responsible, who's involved?"


Hearing kicks off at 8 p.m.

Thursday's hearing, the first of six scheduled in June, is the culmination of an 11-month-long investigation by the House select committee.

The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits they say will shock the public.

ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage.


Cheney issues warning to fellow Republicans

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., had a message for her colleagues who continue to defend Trump and his false election claims.

"Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain," Cheney said.

Cheney also had a message for the American people as they watch these hearings unfold over the next several weeks.

"Please remember what is at stake," she said. "Remember the men and women who have fought and died so that we can live under the rule of law and not the rule of men."