"We are fully cooperating": Filmmaker hands over never-before-seen footage of Trumps to Jan. 6 probe

The new footage includes interviews of Trump before and after the Capitol riot

By Jon Skolnik

Staff Writer

Published June 21, 2022 11:36AM (EDT)

Photos of then-President Trump are shown during a House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th hearing in the Cannon House Office Building on Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Photos of then-President Trump are shown during a House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th hearing in the Cannon House Office Building on Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The January 6 select committee last week subpoenaed Alex Holder, a documentary filmmaker who filmed never-before-seen interviews with Donald Trump before and after the Capitol riot, according to Politico.

Holder reportedly began recording the former president at the start of Trump's campaign trail back in September 2020. The committee is requesting trove of raw footage including interviews with Donald Trump; his daughter, Ivanka; his two sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.; and Jared Kushner, the former president's son-in-law. The footage reportedly pertains "to discussions of election fraud or election integrity surrounding the November 2020 presidential election." Holder says he is fully cooperating with the panel. 

RELATED: Jan. 6 hearings: Collective therapy with no catharsis – and probably no convictions

The news comes just days after reports that the committee is expected to subpoena former Vice President Mike Pence and Ginni Thomas, the right-wing activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. According to The New York Times, Ginni Thomas played an instrumental role in crafting a scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which many critics have said presents a conflict of interest with her husband's role in the judiciary. In the months leading up to the Capitol riot, Ginni Thomas repeatedly encouraged former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to explore various avenues of challenging President Biden's win.


Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.


Rep. Adam Schiff, R-Calif., said this week that the committee is "not taking anything off the table in terms of witnesses who have not yet testified," according to the Associated Press. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has said that the panel is currently "engaging" with Pence's legal team.

At 1pm ET on Tuesday, the panel will hold its fourth January 6 hearing, specifically probing the pressure campaign that numerous Trump allies coordinated with state and federal lawmakers. A committee aide told Politico that the proceeding will demonstrate that this campaign "perpetuated the public's belief that the election was stolen and tainted by widespread fraud and lies that ultimately contributed to the violence of Jan. 6."

RELATED: Photojournalist David Butow covered Trump and Jan. 6: "I don't think there's an America anymore"

The panel is reportedly expected to hear from Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump personally attempted to cajole into "finding" the right amount of votes to nullify Biden's victory in Fulton County. Bowers, meanwhile, was one of the few Republicans in the Arizona legislature to resist Trump's effort to overturn the election in Maricopa County, which held a months-long "forensic audit" of the 2020 election and ultimately found no evidence of fraud.


By Jon Skolnik

Jon Skolnik was a former staff writer at Salon.

MORE FROM Jon Skolnik


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Alex Holder Brief Capitol Riot Donald Trump Ivanka Trump Jan. 6 Jan. 6 Hearings Trump Family