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We've already heard several mentions of one man - John Eastman - during today's hearing.

So who is he?

John Eastman, a constitutional theorist and former law professor, was reportedly the architect of a strategy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Eastman, who worked as a campaign lawyer for Donald Trump, believed Vice-President Pence could throw out state results and declare Trump the president or - at the very least - delay certification of the election results.

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Videos shown by the committee indicate what Congressman Aguilar has referred to as a multi-week "pressure campaign" on Mike Pence to stop the certification of the 2020 election.

The videos include a clip of Donald Trump saying that he hopes Pence "comes through" on 6 January.

"If he doesn't come through, I won't like him as much," Trump said.

Other clips show comments by figures including former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and communications strategist Jason Miller.

"I think he'll throw down and do the right thing," Miller said in a televised interview ahead of 6 January.

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Key to today's testimony is the certification of the presidential election. Here's how that works.

When Americans go to the polls in November of a presidential election cycle, they vote for their preferred candidate - but they're actually choosing a slate of electors.

There are 538 electors in total, making up what is known as the Electoral College.

Each state must submit its slate before the electors meet in December to sign, seal and certify the electoral vote counts for their respective states.

Congress receives these certificates in late December or early January.

On 6 January, it meets in a special joint session to officially count the votes. The vice-president - who serves as the President of the Senate - presides over the session.

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Luttig has said that efforts to encourage Mike Pence to stop the election results from being certified were "constitutional mischief" with no basis in reality.

"I would have laid my body across the road before I let the vice-president overturn the 2020 election," he said, arguing that allies of former President Trump were misinterpreting the US constitution's 12th amendment.

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Prominent Fox News host Sean Hannity expressed concern that the White House's legal counsel would resign amid growing tension ahead of the 6 January riot.

Text messages shown by the committee indicate that Hannity said on 5 January that he was "very worried about the next 48 hours" in a message to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.

At the time, Trump and some senior allies - most notably campaign attorney John Eastman - were calling on Mike Pence to not certify the elections at the Capitol on 6 January.

In videotaped testimony played at a previous hearing, however, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was dismissive of the possibility that White House counsel would resign.

He characterised threats to do so as "whining".

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Congressman Aguilar notes that it was not just the two witnesses before today's committee hearing who say the Eastman theory was wrong.

In a clip from the deposition of Marc Short - Pence's ex-chief of staff - he says White House chief of staff Mark Meadows "did agree" the push to reject state electors made no sense.

Footage from the questioning of various other staffers and advisors to Trump is also played.

Jason Miller, a communications strategist, agrees the theory was "crazy" and had "no validity in any way, shape or form".

And Eric Herschmann, a former Trump White House lawyer, says he bluntly asked - using an expletive - Dr Eastman: "Are you out of your mind?"

Luttig has said that the language of the 12th amendment is "that simple" in that it only calls for the electoral certification process to be opened and counted.

However, Luttig told the panel's chief investigative counsel, John Wood, that he would not necessarily use Wood's wording.

The panel is looking into whether there was any legal basis for assertions by Trump and his campaign attorney John Eastman that Mike Pence could have somehow rejected ballots on 6 January 2021.

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Former Trump campaign attorney John Eastman was incorrect in his assessment that Pence could reject state electors on 6 January, Michael Luttig has said.

In his remarks, Luttig said that was “no basis at all” for the theory.

“None,” he said.

Luttig also quoted the 12th amendment to the US constitution, which states that the presiding officer of the electoral certification process will open the certificates in the presence of Congress.

“It clearly says that the electoral count votes shall then be counted,” Luttig said.

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Much of today’s questioning is expected to come from John Wood, a former United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Wood served in various positions during the George W Bush administration (2001-2009), including as a chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security.

Republican involvement in the 6 January committee is key to its credibility. Wood, a lifelong Republican, was brought to the committee by its Republican vice-chair Liz Cheney, daughter of Bush’s vice-president Dick Cheney.

Cheney’s husband Philip Perry worked with Wood during the Bush years.

Now a partner at the DC-based law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed, Wood was formerly a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and circuit court judge Michael Luttig, one of today's witnesses.

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In her role as vice chair of the 6 January committee, Congresswoman Liz Cheney has laid out the broader context of each hearing.

Cheney said that today's hearing will focus on the "illegal and unconstitutional" demand President Trump made of his vice-president.

She explains that Trump attorney John Eastman pushed a theory that Pence could simply reject Biden votes in several states and declare Trump the winner regardless of already-certified vote totals.

"This was false," Cheney says.

She notes Eastman had said in an email his proposal "had no legal weight" and would have been "dead on arrival in Congress".

Backing up her statement, Judge Luttig testifies that there was "no historical precedent" for such a move.

A declaration of a Trump victory by Mike Pence would have "plunged America" into something "tantamount to a revolution" within a constitutional crisis, Michael Luttig has said.

Luttig said that the crisis would have been the first of its stature since the US was founded.

He added that he believes the committee must examine whether the "profound truth" of rule of law was "violated" ahead of the riot.

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Greg Jacob, then-counsel to Mike Pence, held conversations with the vice-president about his role in the electoral process.

He tells the committee "our review of text, history and frankly just common sense" confirmed that Pence did not have the authority to overturn the election results.

Jacob adds there was no way the constitution's framers "would ever have put one person - particularly not a person who had a direct interest in the outcome - in a role to have a decisive impact on the outcome of the election".

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In his remarks at today’s hearing, former judge and conservative legal scholar Michael Luttig is expected to say that “America’s democracy was almost stolen from her”, according to CBS News.

Citing two sources familiar with his upcoming testimony, CBS is reporting that Luttig will tell the American public that the Republican National Committee was incorrect when it referred to the events of 6 January 2021 at “legitimate political discourse”.

He will also reportedly tell fellow Republicans that it would be a mistake to ignore what the committee has alleged was an attempt by Donald Trump to cling to power.

Following the November 2020 election, Luttig determined that former Vice-President Mike Pence would not be able to stop the results from being certified, despite Donald Trump repeatedly stating the opposite.

In his own opening remarks, Pete Aguilar said that the riots of 6 January 2021 were "not an isolated incident" and followed a "legal scheme and deception" to ensure that Trump stayed in the White House.

Aguilar also played a video of Trump's remarks at the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington DC on the day of the riot - in which he addresses Mike Pence directly - as well as footage of rioters headed to the Capitol.

One rioter said in the footage that the group would "drag politicians through the streets" if Pence didn't do what Trump asked.

The group can also be heard chanting "Hang Mike Pence" while the former vice-president was inside the Capitol.

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Currently speaking at the hearing is California Congressman Pete Aguilar.

Aguilar, 42, is the vice-chair of Democrats in the US House of Representatives. That makes him the highest-ranking Hispanic lawmaker in Congress.

The former mayor of Redlands - a city some 60 miles east of Los Angeles - flipped a Republican-controlled district to win his seat in 2014. He is now in his fourth term.

Aguilar has maintained a low profile in Congress, but sits on key committees and has pushed on several occasions for comprehensive immigration reforms.

The father of two has described what happened on 6 January 2021 as "one of the darkest days in our country's history”.

He has also said the committee’s work and public hearings are intended “to tell the truth, not to create the next Marvel movie”.

Immediately after opening the hearing, Bennie Thompson said that former vice-president Mike Pence would be at the heart of today's hearing.

He said that Pence agreed with the idea that there is nothing "more un-American" than one person choosing the President.

Additionally, Thompson said that Pence was in "tremendous danger" from "a mob" for defying the wishes of his former boss to overturn the results of the November 2020 election.

The danger to American democracy, Thompson added, "has not receded".

The hearings have now begun with remarks from committee chairman Bennie Thompson.

He is expected to give about 10 minutes of opening statement along with vice-chair Liz Cheney.

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Former President Donald Trump has so far dismissed the 6 January committee hearings as a “Kangaroo court” designed to distract Americans from the “disaster” of a Democratic-led government.

In a lengthy statement earlier this week, Trump accused the committee of being “desperate to change the narrative of a failing nation” while ignoring the rioting that erupted during US racial justice protests over the summer of 2020.

Additionally, Trump accused the “unselect pseudo-committee” of treason.

"Make no mistake, they control the government. They own this disaster. They are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects," he said.

The committee hearings are expected to begin in just a few minutes time at 1pm local time (5pm GMT).

Please follow us here for more updates once the hearings begin.

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After 11 months of investigation, nearly 100 subpoenas and over 1,000 interviews, the congressional committee investigating the 6 January 2021 attack is again presenting its findings to the American public.

Through the hearings, the Democratic-led committee wants to create a definitive account of the riot and the attempts to undermine the 2020 presidential election results.

Ultimately, the hearings could lead to prosecutions and new laws to strengthen election security.

Ahead of November’s midterm elections, Democrats may also be hoping that the hearings remind Americans of the chaotic 6 January riot carried out to buoy a Republican president.

Read more about the committee’s investigation and the hearings here.