Only liberals cared about this week, so it didn’t get much traction—but the House Select Committee on January 6 voted on some criminal referrals for former President Donald Trump for his supposed role in the Capitol riots. This clown car of a congressional body is going bye-bye in the next Congress as Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will not permit its continued existence. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) wanted to use this select committee as part of her move to take over the Republican Party—but she got primary challenged and lost in August. Yet, when you read the reports on the referrals, you’d think something big is going happen to the former president (via NBC News):
The House Jan. 6 committee voted Monday to recommend that the Justice Department pursue a batch of criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for his role in an effort to overturn the 2020 election and the fomenting of a deadly mob at the Capitol.
Trump was the first president in American history to be impeached twice. Now, he is also the first president to be formally referred by Congress for potential prosecution.
The committee's final meeting was the culmination of a sweeping 17-month congressional investigation that included more than 100 subpoenas, interviews with more than 1,200 witnesses and the collection of hundreds of thousands of documents
The select committee also took aim at Trump’s top allies — on and off Capitol Hill — who worked with the former president to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory and illegitimately keep Trump in power.
I would bet that nothing is going to happen to Trump. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is already a laughingstock with no credibility, and it’s been dragged through the mud again with its “master-canine” relationship with Twitter regarding influencing public opinion being exposed. They raided Trump’s home last summer in what everyone thought was gross overreach and all for nothing. No smoking gun was unearthed.
Also, let’s say they charge Trump; he’s not dropping out of the 2024 race. The Mar-a-Lago raid was their warning; Trump called their bluff. Yet, Michael Tracey, a liberal writer, quickly dismissed this story, tweeting that the referrals carry as much legal weight as “Bozo the Clown” with a magic marker.
What's being called a "criminal referral" by the Jan 6 committee carries just as much legal weight as a letter written in magic marker by Bozo the Clown. Has no basis at all in any statute or House rule, they just put out a Word document and made up a serious-sounding name for it
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 20, 2022
They didn't even attempt to invoke the one statutory authority they do potentially have at their disposal, the criminal contempt statute (2 USC § 194). So they just wrote their equivalent of a long Substack screed, and hoped the phrase "criminal referral" would get people excited
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 20, 2022