The desk of Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi and chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January sixth Attack on the US Capitol, before a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Dec. 19, 2022.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Jan. 6 select House committee on Monday referred former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation and potential prosecution for his efforts to overturn his loss within the 2020 election.
The committee’s historic referral says there’s sufficient evidence to refer Trump for 4 crimes: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the federal government, making knowingly and willfully make materially false statements to the federal government, and inciting or assisting an rebellion.
While the Justice Department takes criminal referrals seriously, it is not obligated to charge anyone with a criminal offense. Trump hasn’t been charged with any crimes related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol and has denied any wrongdoing.
If Trump were to be charged and convicted of rebellion, he theoretically may very well be barred from holding federal office again under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Structure. Trump last month announced that he’ll seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
Nevertheless, it underscores how seriously the committee views Trump’s actions after the election, within the weeks leading as much as the Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the halls of Congress by a mob of his supporters.
The House committee on Monday also advisable that the DOJ investigate and potentially prosecute Trump’s election law attorney John Eastman for his role in advancing a plan to overturn the election results. Eastman’s referral was for his alleged violation of two criminal statutes: impeding an official proceeding of the US government, and conspiring to defraud the US.
Eastman was the creator of a two-page memo that outlined a plan for then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify several states’ Electoral College electors when Congress met for that purpose on Jan. 6.
Panel member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, said the committee would refer 4 members of Congress “for appropriate sanction by the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply with lawful subpoenas.” He didn’t name them, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is among the many members who defied a subpoena from the committee.
The committee’s referrals come after nearly 18 months of investigation, which included greater than 1,000 witness interviews, subpoenas for documents and electronic communications, and public hearings.
The DOJ already is conducting a criminal probe of Trump for those actions, which involved an effort to reverse his losses to President Joe Biden in several swing states, and to pressure Pence to refuse to just accept Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory within the Electoral College.
The DOJ is also individually investigating him for his removal of presidency documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021.
Jack Smith, who was appointed special counsel for the DOJ last month to handle its investigations of Trump, said on the time of that appointment, “I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions which will result from them, independently and in one of the best traditions of the Department of Justice.”
Smith added at the moment: “The pace of the investigations is not going to pause or flag under my watch. I’ll exercise independent judgement and can move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever consequence the facts and the law dictate.”
The members of the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol sit beneath a video of former U.S. President Donald Trump talking in regards to the results of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election as they hold their final public meeting to release their report on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 19, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Trump has called the investigations into his conduct after the 2020 election “witch hunts,” and defended his actions as legitimate.
He has falsely claimed he won the election, and that Biden’s victory was the results of widespread voter fraud within the swing states he lost.
Trump also has claimed that Pence had the authority to reject the Electoral College votes of those contested swing states.
That is breaking news. Check back for updates.