The January 6 committee is all set to enter a new phase of investigation: public hearings. Former US President Donald Trump, who is accused of inciting a violent mob, is at the center of the hearings.

Members of the investigative body, who have functioned behind closed doors till now, hinted that they have acquired substantial evidence against the former President. Unlike many of his allies, Trump has not been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee so far.

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There is evidence that is “about a lot more than incitement”, according to House Representative Jamie Raskin, who serves as a member of the January 6 committee. “We are going to be laying out the evidence about all of the actors who were pivotal to what took place on January 6th”, Raskin told Washington Post.

The committee has also conducted more than 1,000 depositions in the last year and collected thousands of documents that can serve as evidence, Associated Press reported. A part of the investigation is also being handled by the United States Department of Justice. 

A flurry of text messages that were received and sent from then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows‘ phone were released earlier this year by CNN. More than 2,300 text messages that were sent after the 2020 election result and January 6 were made public.

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These messages reportedly link the former President — and his inner circle — to the narrative of fraudulent elections. Many January 6 rioters have said their actions were based on the “rigged election” claim made by Trump.

The committee will sort through the mountain of information it has collected into different hearing topics, from domestic extremism to security failures to what former President Donald Trump was doing in the White House that day as hundreds of his supporters brutally pushed past police and forced their way into the Capitol.