The House of Representative's select committee established by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to investigate the events of January 6, 2021 held its final public hearing on Monday and announced it would be making four criminal referrals for former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice.
#January6thCommittee Criminal Referrals of President Donald J. Trump to the Department of Justice. pic.twitter.com/Ls8y9qLRX5
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 19, 2022
The four referrals are for:
- Obstruction of an official proceeding
- Conspiracy to defraud the United States
- Conspiracy to make a false statement
- Inciting or assisting an insurrection
Trump was not alone, either. A number of his associates were also referred to the DOJ, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Mark Meadows, and Jeffrey Clark.
Jan. 6 committee criminal referrals:
— Luke Broadwater☀️ (@lukebroadwater) December 19, 2022
Insurrection:
-Trump
Obstruction of official proceeding:
-Trump
-Clark
-Eastman
-Chesebro
Conspiracy to defraud US:
-Trump
-Eastman
-Clark
-Chesebro
-Meadows
-Giuliani
Conspiracy to make false statement:
-Trump
-Eastman
-Chesebro
In addition, the J6 committee is referring four Republican members to the House Ethics Committee for refusing to testify after being subpoenaed:
- GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, likely the next Speaker of the House
- Jim Jordan of Ohio
- Scott Perry of Pennsylvania
- Andy Biggs of Arizona
Russell Dye, a spokesperson for Rep. Jordan said the Ethics Committee referral "is just another partisan and political stunt made by a Select Committee that knowingly altered evidence, blocked minority representation on a Committee for the first time in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives, and failed to respond to Mr. Jordan’s numerous letters and concerns surrounding the politicization and legitimacy of the Committee’s work.”
Because Congress has no enforcement power, the referrals are mostly symbolic — but given President Biden's politicization of the DOJ, it could be more than just a display of congressional disdain for the former president and likely heightens pressure from Democrats for Attorney General Merrick Garland to bring charges however flimsy they may be.
The question now is what, if anything, the Department of Justice will do with the criminal referrals from the committee.
This is a developing story and may be updated.