Police Who Defended Capitol to Testify at Riot Probe’s First Hearing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) —
Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., meets with the select committee on the Jan. 6 attack as they prepare to hold their first hearing Tuesday, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Monday. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Four police officers who worked to defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters are due to testify on Tuesday at the first hearing before a congressional committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 riot.

The House of Representatives Committee was formed after Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent commission to investigate the attack. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, named the committee’s members.

Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, officers with the U.S. Capitol police, and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, officers with the District of Columbia police, are scheduled as the panel’s first witnesses.

More than 535 people face charges arising from the riot including four charged in the attack on Fanone.

“These officers and their colleagues are American heroes,” said David Laufman, an attorney for Dunn and Gonell. “They courageously defended the United States Capitol and our democratic process against a violent insurrectionist mob on Jan. 6, and they’re going to tell Congress and the American people the terrible truth of what actually happened that day.”

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