The House Select Committee probing the January 6 Capitol riots will hold a hearing on Thursday, October 13 at 1:00 pm. The House Select Committee is a congressional body made up of five Democrats and two Republicans. 

The Committee is probing erstwhile President Donald Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots when a mob attacked the United States Capitol building, the seat of the US administration, contesting the results of a presidential election which Donald Trump lost to current US President Joe Biden. 

The probe panel has suggested that there may be enough evidence to bring criminal charges against the former president, a BBC report says. 

Here’s what the probe panel has been told so far: 

1. Trump allies alerted former president

A number of allies of the former president later came forward and said that they had indeed told Trump that there was no truth to the claim that the presidential elections were stolen. Bill Barr, former Attorney General in the Trump administration, said Donald Trump’s allegations of widespread voter fraud were easily debunked and that his claims that the election had been stolen were “crazy stuff”. 

2. Rowdy Rudy pushed Trump to declare victory

Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani egged on the former president to declare that he had won the 2020 presidential race. Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien said Giuliani was “definitely intoxicated” when he told the former president to “go and declare victory and say we’d won it outright”. 

3. Mob that attacked Capitol was armed and Trump knew 

Donald Trump was aware that the people who barged into the Capitol building were armed, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, former top aide to ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson said that when Trump was made aware that the mob carried weapons, the president said that he doesn’t care.