Donald Trump To Be Criminally Prosecutued? Jan. 6 Committee Refers Former President To DOJ On 4 Counts
The Jan. 6 House select committee voted on criminal referrals Monday, marking the end of a comprehensive 18-month investigation into the deadly Capitol Riots.
The committee recommended former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for violating four criminal statutes: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., providing false statements, and assisting or aiding in an insurrection.
The Justice Department does not have to act on the recommendations. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is overseeing two major Justice Department investigations involving Trump.
"The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him," the panel wrote in its initial report summary.
Trump is the first president to be formally criminally referred by Congress. He announced his 2024 presidential campaign in November.
Trump allies who were referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution include former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark and Kenneth Chesebro.
The panel, which includes seven Democrats and two Republicans, revealed a summary of the final report which is set for release on Wednesday. The committee held its first hearing last summer and has held several high-profile hearings. Leaders Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs of the right-wing militia group The Oath Keepers were found guilty of seditious conspiracy in a November hearing.
In the Monday hearing, committee members recommended four Republican House members to the House Ethics committee for defying subpoenas: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Andy Biggs of Arizona.
Departing Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama was also recommended to the ethics committee.
"I certainly hope the Ethics Committee will not regard this as a partisan matter. It raises a profound problem that we have to solve for the 117th Congress, the 118th Congress and for all future Congresses," said committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.
"The committee is nearing the end of its work, but as a country we remain in strange and uncharted waters. Nearly two years later this is still a time of reflection and reckoning," said Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
"We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice."
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