Alex Holder, documentary filmmaker, becomes the witness of January 6

Alex Holder, a British documentary maker who had extensive access to President Donald J. Trump and his family before and after the 2020 election, appeared at the end of the House inquiry into the January 6 attack 2021 against the Capitol as a new and potentially important witness.

Mr. Holder is testifying behind closed doors Thursday morning before the House committee investigating Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election he lost. His deposition takes place before a separate meeting public hearing by the committee Thursday on Mr. Trump’s efforts to install a loyalist to lead the Justice Department in the final weeks of his administration.

Footage of Mr Holder – around 11 a.m. with the Trump family discussing the campaign and the election – was called by the committee before the interview.

What precisely the images show is still unclear. But Mr. Holder interviewed Mr. Trump twice before the Jan. 6 riot and once after Jan. 6, meaning he can potentially speak to Mr. Trump’s state of mind and whether he made it clear that he knew he had lost the election.

Images with the Trump family could also be revealing. The New York Times was shown a short excerpt from Ivanka Trump, the former president’s eldest daughter, discussing her take on her father’s repeated false claims that the election was stolen by widespread fraud. The clip was released for The Times by someone with access to it.

This video was recorded on December 10, 2020, after Mr. Trump made baseless claims about widespread fraud for weeks. In the clip, Mrs Trump said: ‘I think like the president said, every vote should be counted and should be heard, and he campaigned for the voiceless.’

She said “a lot of Americans feel very, very disenfranchised right now, and really question the sanctity of our elections, and that’s not fair, that’s not acceptable.”

“He has to take on this fight,” she said. “Look, you fight for what you love the most and he loves this country and he loves the people of this country, and he wants to make sure their voice is, is heard and not stifled.” Mr. Trump “will continue to fight until all legal avenues are exhausted and that is what he should do,” Mrs. Trump said.

The timing of the video and her comments are notable as she was shown in recorded testimony before the House committee saying she had “accepted” Attorney General William P. Barr’s statements, including on December 1, 2020, that there had been no widespread fraud.

To the extent there are other images with the Trump family discussing their views on the election or the campaign’s efforts to fight Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, it could be important to the investigation. of the committee. Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and panel chair, cited access to the footage as a reason for delaying additional public hearings the panel was scheduled to hold next week; those sessions have now been pushed back to July.

The filmmaker was linked to Mrs. Trump’s husband and de facto chief strategist, Jared Kushner, through Jason D. Greenblatt, a former lawyer for the Trump Organization who became Mr. Trump in the Middle East. The documentary was envisioned as a legacy project for Mr. Trump and, by extension, his family.

But no senior campaign officials were told about it, and several were stunned when they learned it existed after Politico reported this week that the images had been subpoenaed.

The footage was used for a series due to air on Discovery+ later this summer.