The Jan. 6 committee responsible for investigating the events of the unprecedented Capitol Hill riot has officially announced its criminal referrals against former United States President Donald Trump and some of his colleagues.
The announcement comes after more than a year of investigation and follows the end of the House Select Committee's final meeting. The panel, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson and vice-chaired by Rep. Liz Cheney, issued four criminal charges against Trump.
Criminal Referrals Against Donald Trump
Furthermore, the panel referred four other Republican lawmakers in Congress; Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, and Andy Biggs to the House Ethics Committee. The lawmakers were issued the referrals over their failure to comply with subpoenas that the committee previously handed out to them.
The select committee issued a 154-page document that the panel describes as its "introductory material" into the report. In the document, they laid out 16 key findings, placing Trump's "plotting to overturn the election outcome" as the focus of the report, as per NPR.
While the Jan. 6 committee has yet to publicly release the full text of its final report, the document they published is mostly a recap of their findings in their nine previous public hearings. The panel makes a series of specific points about how the former president allegedly tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.
Within the document, the committee made several claims about Trump and his alleged attempts to turn the results of the election in his favor. This includes purposely disseminating false allegations of fraud related to the election.
According to CBS News, the seven Democrats and two Republicans of the House Select Committee voted unanimously in support of the criminal referrals against Trump. The charges referred to the Justice Department include obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and incitement, rebellion, or insurrection.
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Attempts to Overturn Election Loss
Furthermore, the former president's actions could constitute violations of two other conspiracy statutes depending on potential evidence developed by the Justice Department. The panel said that they made the decision due to the gravity of the specific offenses, their actual harm, and the centrality of the offender to the scheme.
The nine members of the committee also said that even if Trump genuinely believed that there was voter fraud, it was no defense to do what he did. The lawmakers added, "no president can ignore the courts and purposely violate the law no matter what supposed 'justification' he or she presents."
However, the panel's recommendation of criminal charges against the former president is not binding and federal prosecutors will have the final say on whether to move forward with the referrals.
The panel also made criminal referrals against John Eastman, a lawyer and Trump supporter who allegedly helped the former president to overturn his election loss. He was cited with the same charges as Trump except for the insurrection offense.
Prior to the panel's Monday announcement, the former president criticized House lawmakers in social media posts on his platform, Truth Social. He said that the "Unselect Committee of political hacks are the same group that came up with the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX, not to mention many others. They are Corrupt cowards who hate our Country!" Yahoo News reported.
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