Surprise new evidence: Capitol riot panel to reconvene

In the US, the House January 6 panel says it is calling a surprise hearing to present "recently obtained evidence".

The hearing, scheduled for Tuesday (at 1pm local time), comes after Congress left Washington for a two-week recess. Lawmakers on the panel investigating the 2021 insurrection said last week that there would be no more hearings until July.

The subject of the hearings is so far unclear. A spokesman for the panel declined to comment on its substance.

The committee's investigation has been ongoing during the hearings that started three weeks ago, and the nine-member panel has continued to compile evidence.

Among other investigative evidence, the committee recently obtained new footage of then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle taken both before and after January 6, 2021 from British filmmaker Alex Holder.

Holder said last week that he had complied with a congressional subpoena to turn over all of the footage he shot in the final weeks of Trump's 2020 re-election campaign.

My statement about meeting with the January 6th Committee: pic.twitter.com/ZDUDc6nV39

— Alex Holder (@alexjholder) June 23, 2022

The filmmaker said the footage includes exclusive interviews with Trump, his children and then-Vice President Mike Pence while on the campaign trail as well as before and after the insurrection on the Capitol.

The panel has held five hearings so far, and at least two more hearings were planned for July.

Lawmakers said the future hearings would focus on domestic extremists who breached the Capitol that day and on what then-President Donald Trump was doing as the violence unfolded.

- AP