The Jan. 6 select committee, in a surprise announcement with about 24 hours’ notice, scheduled a Tuesday hearing “to present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”

It was not immediately clear whom the panel was calling to testify, nor what new evidence was being presented. But the sudden schedule change intensified intrigue in Washington, where the panel has mounted a carefully choreographed set of hearings about former President Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election.

The shift was particularly jarring after the panel had foreshadowed a two-week hiatus to assess and analyze a flood of new evidence. The committee’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), told reporters last week that investigators were poring over new documentary footage from a British filmmaker who had access to Trump and his family before and after Jan. 6. The panel was also anticipating a new tranche of documents from the National Archives, due to arrive on July 8.

The Tuesday hearing plan quickly set Capitol Hill abuzz, even though details were sparse. Committee aides and members were tight-lipped about the substance of the hearing but were clear that it was scheduled with extreme urgency, interrupting what many of them had planned to be a quieter-than-usual week.

Documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, who had extensive access to the Trump family, met with investigators last Thursday morning after getting subpoenaed by the select panel for his recordings and testimony. And the panel also sent a letter to Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas also known as Ginni, seeking her testimony after evidence emerged she had exchanged emails with Trump-allied attorney John Eastman.

A Holder spokesperson declined to comment.



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