Who is Nick Quested and why did he testify in the Jan. 6 hearings?

Nick Quested, a documentary filmmaker who captured parts of the Jan. 6 insurrection, was among the first witnesses to testify before the House committee investigating the attack during its first public hearing on June 9.

Quested and his crew had been documenting the extremist group the Proud Boys, including their then-leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio. That included following members as they traveled to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. Quested and his crew documented the activity around the Capitol that morning and some of the first moments of violence, including against Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who also testified in the June 9 hearing.

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That footage was featured as part of the committee’s hearing.

Quested had already been interviewed by the Justice Department and by the committee in closed-door conversations, and said he was present at the Jan. 6 hearing after being subpoenaed.

But June 9 was the first time he outlined publicly what he saw that week, starting with a meeting between Tarrio and Elmer “Stewart” Rhodes, the founder and leader of the extremist group the Oath Keepers, the night before the insurrection.

On the morning of Jan. 6, Quested said he and his team had met up with the Proud Boys to continue filming them.

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“They started to walk towards the Capitol. There was a large contingent. More than I had expected,” Quested said, noting that the Proud Boys already began to walk towards the Capitol before former President Donald Trump’s speech by the Ellipse behind the White House had begun.

“I was confused to a certain extent while we were walking away from the president’s speech. Because that is what I felt we were there to cover,” Quested said.

“I make efforts to create familiarity between myself and my subjects to make them feel comfortable. And the atmosphere was much darker than it had been in these other days,” Quested said.