Jan 6 panel holds second hearing, former Trump campaign manager Stepien to testify

The Democrat-led House special committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot will resume public hearings Monday with testimony from Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien.

The public hearing in the second for the committee after more than year of members meeting behind closed door in efforts to learn more about the incident, which is has reportedly hundreds of interviews.

The first hearing was Thursday night, a primetime event that was covered by major TV news outlets.

According to the subpoena that has resulted in Stepien testifying, he supervised the conversion of the Trump 2020 campaign into the "Stop the Steal" effort – attempts to keep Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election that Trump and supporters say he lost as a result of widespread voting fraud.

He will likely face questions about what those in the then-president's inner circle were telling him about the results of the election. 

The morning hearings will be led by committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, and vice chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming. 

During the committee's first primetime hearing last week, members established evidence that supports their understanding that members of the former president's inner-circle repeatedly told him that there was no election fraud on a scale big enough to have changed the results of the election. 

Committee lawmakers are arguably most interested this week, in continuing to lay out evidence for Attorney General Merrick Garland, who will ultimately decide whether his department will prosecute the former president. 

"Once the evidence is accumulated by the Justice Department, it needs to make a decision about whether it can prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt the president’s guilt or anyone else’s. But they need to be investigated if there’s credible evidence, which I think there is," said panel member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who also played a significant role in peddling the now-defunct Russia-collusion narrative.

It is unclear whether Garland will be willing to prosecute the former president. No sitting or former Commander-in-Chief has ever been indicted.