Who is Bill Stepien and why was he called to testify in the Jan. 6 hearings?

Bill Stepien, a former Trump campaign manager, will no longer testify before the House Jan. 6 committee as planned.

READ MORE: Your guide to key players at the Jan. 6 hearings

The committee said an hour before its second hearing began June 13 that a family emergency prohibited him from participating. The New York Times reported his wife went into labor. Stepien’s lawyer is expected to appear and make a statement on his behalf, Axios reported. The committee is also expected to show his previously recorded video testimony.

As a Trump campaign manager, Stepien was intimately involved with communicating how the former president was faring in states across the country, in the months leading up to Election Day and on election night. The New York Times reported that Stepien told Trump that evening that his odds of winning were low.

In its subpoena to Stepien, the committee indicated it was particularly interested in Stepien’s involvement in Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign that promoted the false claim there were voting machine inaccuracies during the 2020 election, messaging that was repeated by rioters who attacked the Capitol. The campaign built fundraising around those false claims despite internal memos that acknowledged that they were false. The committee also accused the campaign of asking states to delay or deny the election results.

Stepien, a former advisor to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, is currently helping a candidate who is challenging Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of Trump’s few Republican critics and also a member of the Jan. 6 committee.

WATCH LIVE: Jan. 6 committee hearing – Day 2

Stepien told reporters in the run-up to the hearing that he was appearing under subpoena. It’s unclear how cooperative he would have been in his responses.

Read more here on the key players and witnesses in the Jan. 6 committee.

This is a developing story and will be updated.