World enews: Jan. 6 committee to release transcripts of interviews along with report, expected before Christmas, Thompson says

WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee will release transcripts of interviews investigators conducted in the course of their investigation into the attack on the Capitol, the panel’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, said Wednesday.

“We plan to make available transcripts and other materials,” Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters on Capitol Hill.

The transcripts will be made public at the same time as the committee’s long-awaited report summarizing and detailing the probe, Thompson said, adding that he expects they would be released before the Christmas holiday.

Thompson indicated transcripts won’t be available for all the interviews because some people had a “pre-arranged agreement that we would not make them available.”

“It’s a digital version that the public can access,” Thompson said when asked how people will be able to view the records. The chairman did not say whose interviews would be provided or specify the number of transcripts that would be released.

The committee, which started its work in the summer of 2021, is in the final stages of the investigation. On Monday, former President Donald Trump’s adviser, Kellyanne Conway, appeared for an interview voluntarily, and on Tuesday, Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff, was expected to appear for an interview as well.

Earlier this month, staff members of the Jan. 6 committee were informed that the committee’s final report would focus largely on Trump and less on findings about the failures of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the lead-up to the attack, NBC News previously reported. Sources said at the time that the plan was not set in stone and could change.

A House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol hearing in Washington, D.C. on June 13. Jabin Botsford / Pool/The Washington Post via AP

The committee needs to release the final report about its investigation before the new Congress convenes in January, when the incoming House GOP majority takes control of the chamber.

Since it formed in 2021, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews and depositions and has received hundreds of thousands of documents. Since last June, when the committee held its first series of major hearings, it has received more than 10,000 submissions to its tip line. The panel has also issued about 100 subpoenas.

Among those who sat for hours before the committee are Trump’s children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, the former president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and former Vice President Mike Pence’s aid Greg Jacob.

Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

Scott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News.