What it was like for Nick Quested to become a star January 6 committee witness

• In an interview with Insider, documentary filmmaker Nick Quested detailed his time with the House January 6 select committee.
• Quested told Insider that he was interviewed for 7 hours and also received a subpoena from the Department of Justice.

As a rap music video creator-turned-documentary filmmaker, Nick Quested is used to being behind the cameras, not in front of them.

But among the hundreds of journalists, filmmakers, and people with cameras at the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol riot, the US House's January 6 select committee thrust Quested alone into the prime-time spotlight as one of its first public hearing witnesses.

In an interview Wednesday with Insider, Quested described an intense lead-up to his testimony last week. He described sitting for 7 hours of interviews with members of House select committee and their investigative counsel.

"Imagine it's like going to a seven-hour oral exam, except you're the chosen subject so you've got lots to talk about," Quested said. "And if you make a mistake, you go to jail."

He explained to Insider that the committee has four to five different investigative groups looking into various aspects of the January 6 attack. The group that interviewed him for 7 hours, he said, focused on the Proud Boys extremist group and extremism, in general.

Quested also confirmed he's been subpoenaed by the Department of Justice, which is conducting a parallel investigation into the January 6 riot, and that he's cooperated with Department of Justice investigators.

At the public hearing itself, Quested testified about his time spent with the Proud Boys prior to January 6 and on the day itself as the group stormed the Capitol in an attempt to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. While present at the Capitol complex on January 6, Quested faced tear gas and bean bag launchers while filming.

Quested joked Wednesday that he was chosen for the public hearing because "everyone trusts a British accent," but explained that he had a unique perspective of the January 6 attack because he had a crew of four people stationed at different angles of the Capitol at the time of the attack. He also said that he and his crew simply don't have any "axe to grind."

"We're not in this debate for politics, we're in this for the truth," Quested said. "That's our primary motivation."

He said he doesn't actually know how the committee learned about him and his crew's camerawork on January 5 and 6, but tipped his hat to the committee's investigative skills.

Quested told Insider that he watched the second public hearing and plans to watch the remaining presentations, which are scheduled to resume today with third hearing. Two more are scheduled so far in June, and seven public hearings are expected in all.

"Every hearing I learned something new, and I'm an expert in this subject," said Quested, who is working on a documentary on political division in America.

Quested, who produced "Restrepo" and has worked on several other documentaries on foreign conflicts, said that he understands that he might be ostracized or seen differently by sources due to his cooperation with the US government.

"I know that this will affect how people view me in the future, but I feel that I am on the right side of the truth here and that's all that's important to me," he said.