U.S. Jan. 6 committee chair has COVID; Thursday hearing will proceed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democrat Bennie Thompson, chairman of the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said on Tuesday he has contracted COVID-19 but that the panel’s hearing scheduled for Thursday evening will proceed.

Thompson said on Twitter that he tested positive on Monday and was experiencing mild symptoms. He said he was fully vaccinated and boosted.

The House of Representatives select committee has held seven hearings in the past six weeks looking at the attack by supporters of Republican then-President Donald Trump in a failed effort to prevent Congress from certifying his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

“While Chairman Thompson is disappointed with his COVID diagnosis, he has instructed the select committee to proceed with Thursday evening’s hearing,” the committee said in a statement.

The hearing, which is aimed at reaching a broad U.S. television audience during prime viewing hours, will be the panel’s eighth public session in the past six weeks.

Two White House officials in Trump’s administration — former National Security Council official Matthew Pottinger and former Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews — are expected to testify on Thursday, according to U.S. media. The committee has not confirmed that they will testify or released a witness list.

Separately, the National Archives sent a letter to the U.S. Secret Service asking for information about text messages deleted on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general last week sent a letter to congressional committees saying the texts might be missing and the Jan. 6 committee issued a subpoena asking for them.

Citing an unnamed official briefed on the matter, the Washington Post reported that the Secret Service determined that it has no new texts to provide Congress relevant to the Jan. 6 investigation and other texts its agents exchanged around the time of the attack have been purged.

Asked for comment, the Secret Service said it respects the National Archives and that the agency would have its full cooperation in its review.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey, additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Will Dunham, Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)