Jan 6 Committee refers Trump to DOJ for charges
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Jan. 6 committee votes to refer Trump to DOJ on multiple criminal charges
By Aditi Sangal, Maureen Chowdhury, Elise Hammond, Melissa Macaya and Meg Wagner, CNN
Updated 6:10 PM ET, Mon December 19, 2022
What we're covering here
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection voted during its final public meeting Monday to refer former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice on at least four criminal charges.
The committee also released an executive summary of its final report after approving it in Monday's meeting. The full report will come out Wednesday, marking the end of the panel's expansive probe into the riot.
While the referrals will largely be symbolic in nature, committee members stressed the move serves as a way to document their views. Attorney General Merrick Garland will make the ultimate call on charging decisions.
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Report Summary
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1 hr 30 min ago
The Jan. 6 committee had its last public meeting today. Here's what happens next.
From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Zachary Cohen and Marshall Cohen
House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol conducts its final meeting in the Cannon House Office Building on Monday, December. 19.
House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol conducts its final meeting in the Cannon House Office Building on Monday, December. 19. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
The end is near — at least for the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The panel held its final public session Monday where it voted on its final report and approved a criminal referral for several charges against former President Donald Trump.
So here's what happens next: Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said the full report will come out Wednesday. This will be a historical document that will be studied for generations — never before has a sitting president tried to steal a second term.
Additional "transcripts and documents" will be released before the end of the year, Thompson said.
The sheer volume of this material can't be overstated. The panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, likely generating tens of thousands of pages of transcripts. Many of these interviews were filmed, which means the panel has hundreds of hours of footage that it might release very soon.
These upcoming releases will provide fodder to Trump's critics. But it will also grant a key demand from some of Trump's allies — that the panel disclose the full context of its interviews. Up until this point, the panel has been very selective about which snippets of witness interviews got played at public hearings.
The current Congress ends on January 3, 2023, and that's when the committee will cease to exist. But the Justice Department investigation, overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland, continues.
Of the committee's nine members, four won't be returning to Congress. Besides Republican vice-chair Rep. Liz Cheney and Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida is retiring, and Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia was one of the handful of House Democratic incumbents who lost their seats in the 2022 midterms last month.
2 hr 6 min ago
Here's what the Jan. 6 committee criminal referrals for Trump mean — and why they are significant
From CNN's, CNN's Jeremy Herb, Zachary Cohen and Marshall Cohen
For months, the Jan. 6 committee went back-and-forth over whether it would refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. On Monday, the committee didn’t equivocate.
The committee referred Trump to the DOJ on at least four criminal charges, including:
Obstructing an official proceeding
Defrauding the United States
Making false statements
Assisting or aiding an insurrection
The panel said in its executive summary that it had evidence of possible charges of conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.
So what is a criminal referral? A referral represents a recommendation that the Justice Department investigate and look at charging the individuals in question. The House committee’s final report – to be released Wednesday – will provide justification from the panel’s investigation for recommending the charges.
In practice, the referral is effectively a symbolic measure. It does not require the Justice Department to act, and regardless, Attorney General Merrick Garland has already appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to take on two investigations related to Trump, including the Jan. 6 investigation.
But the formal criminal referrals and the unveiling of its report this week underscore how much the Jan. 6 committee dug up and revealed Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the lead-up to Jan. 6. Now the ball is in the Justice Department’s court.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said during Monday's meeting that he has “every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a road map to justice, and that the agencies and institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we’ve provided to aid in their work.”
After the panel's meeting, Thompson told CNN that the evidence that supports the panel's decision to refer Trump to the DOJ is "clear," adding that he is "convinced" that the department will ultimately charge Trump.
CNN's Tierney Sneed contributed reporting to this post.
2 hr 35 min ago
"We ended up in the middle": Rep. Jamie Raskin explains how the committee made criminal referral selections
From CNN's Annie Grayer
Raskintalks to reporters on Monday, December 19.
Raskintalks to reporters on Monday, December 19. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who serves on the subcommittee of the Jan. 6 select committee responsible for presenting criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, laid out how panel members arrived at the decisions presented during Monday's final public session.
“I think we were all involved in this dialogue from the beginning. And you know, the dialogue really started with two polls: those who thought perhaps we don’t need to do any specifical referrals, the whole committee work product is a referral to the prosecutors and the people. And then there were those on the other end who said we should refer every single offense that we saw of any type no matter how central. But we ended up in the middle with the idea that we should focus on the central actors with the major offenses” Raskin said.
Asked about process offenses, such as witness tampering or perjury, Raskin said “as evidence is assembled about that, I hope that those will be charged as well. You cannot suborn perjury, you cannot obstruct justice, you cannot interfere with a congressional proceeding.” However, Raskin did not specify who these potential charges related to in the panel’s investigation.
In terms of unanswered questions left by the committee, Raskin was asked if the panel ever solved the situation with the pipe bombs on Jan. 6 and said, “I don’t believe there have been any updates since we first looked int to. Those are unsolved crimes.”
By Aditi Sangal, Maureen Chowdhury, Elise Hammond, Melissa Macaya and Meg Wagner, CNN
Updated 6:10 PM ET, Mon December 19, 2022
What we're covering here
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection voted during its final public meeting Monday to refer former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice on at least four criminal charges.
The committee also released an executive summary of its final report after approving it in Monday's meeting. The full report will come out Wednesday, marking the end of the panel's expansive probe into the riot.
While the referrals will largely be symbolic in nature, committee members stressed the move serves as a way to document their views. Attorney General Merrick Garland will make the ultimate call on charging decisions.
All
Catch Up
Referrals
Report Summary
55 Posts
SORT BY
1 hr 30 min ago
The Jan. 6 committee had its last public meeting today. Here's what happens next.
From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Zachary Cohen and Marshall Cohen
House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol conducts its final meeting in the Cannon House Office Building on Monday, December. 19.
House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol conducts its final meeting in the Cannon House Office Building on Monday, December. 19. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
The end is near — at least for the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The panel held its final public session Monday where it voted on its final report and approved a criminal referral for several charges against former President Donald Trump.
So here's what happens next: Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said the full report will come out Wednesday. This will be a historical document that will be studied for generations — never before has a sitting president tried to steal a second term.
Additional "transcripts and documents" will be released before the end of the year, Thompson said.
The sheer volume of this material can't be overstated. The panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, likely generating tens of thousands of pages of transcripts. Many of these interviews were filmed, which means the panel has hundreds of hours of footage that it might release very soon.
These upcoming releases will provide fodder to Trump's critics. But it will also grant a key demand from some of Trump's allies — that the panel disclose the full context of its interviews. Up until this point, the panel has been very selective about which snippets of witness interviews got played at public hearings.
The current Congress ends on January 3, 2023, and that's when the committee will cease to exist. But the Justice Department investigation, overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland, continues.
Of the committee's nine members, four won't be returning to Congress. Besides Republican vice-chair Rep. Liz Cheney and Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida is retiring, and Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia was one of the handful of House Democratic incumbents who lost their seats in the 2022 midterms last month.
2 hr 6 min ago
Here's what the Jan. 6 committee criminal referrals for Trump mean — and why they are significant
From CNN's, CNN's Jeremy Herb, Zachary Cohen and Marshall Cohen
For months, the Jan. 6 committee went back-and-forth over whether it would refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. On Monday, the committee didn’t equivocate.
The committee referred Trump to the DOJ on at least four criminal charges, including:
Obstructing an official proceeding
Defrauding the United States
Making false statements
Assisting or aiding an insurrection
The panel said in its executive summary that it had evidence of possible charges of conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.
So what is a criminal referral? A referral represents a recommendation that the Justice Department investigate and look at charging the individuals in question. The House committee’s final report – to be released Wednesday – will provide justification from the panel’s investigation for recommending the charges.
In practice, the referral is effectively a symbolic measure. It does not require the Justice Department to act, and regardless, Attorney General Merrick Garland has already appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to take on two investigations related to Trump, including the Jan. 6 investigation.
But the formal criminal referrals and the unveiling of its report this week underscore how much the Jan. 6 committee dug up and revealed Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the lead-up to Jan. 6. Now the ball is in the Justice Department’s court.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said during Monday's meeting that he has “every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a road map to justice, and that the agencies and institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we’ve provided to aid in their work.”
After the panel's meeting, Thompson told CNN that the evidence that supports the panel's decision to refer Trump to the DOJ is "clear," adding that he is "convinced" that the department will ultimately charge Trump.
CNN's Tierney Sneed contributed reporting to this post.
2 hr 35 min ago
"We ended up in the middle": Rep. Jamie Raskin explains how the committee made criminal referral selections
From CNN's Annie Grayer
Raskintalks to reporters on Monday, December 19.
Raskintalks to reporters on Monday, December 19. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who serves on the subcommittee of the Jan. 6 select committee responsible for presenting criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, laid out how panel members arrived at the decisions presented during Monday's final public session.
“I think we were all involved in this dialogue from the beginning. And you know, the dialogue really started with two polls: those who thought perhaps we don’t need to do any specifical referrals, the whole committee work product is a referral to the prosecutors and the people. And then there were those on the other end who said we should refer every single offense that we saw of any type no matter how central. But we ended up in the middle with the idea that we should focus on the central actors with the major offenses” Raskin said.
Asked about process offenses, such as witness tampering or perjury, Raskin said “as evidence is assembled about that, I hope that those will be charged as well. You cannot suborn perjury, you cannot obstruct justice, you cannot interfere with a congressional proceeding.” However, Raskin did not specify who these potential charges related to in the panel’s investigation.
In terms of unanswered questions left by the committee, Raskin was asked if the panel ever solved the situation with the pipe bombs on Jan. 6 and said, “I don’t believe there have been any updates since we first looked int to. Those are unsolved crimes.”
Hmmm. Maybe I am wrong. There is nothing on Fox News about it…
...and it took only 2 years to get this far.
Wow. America is really piss-weak these days, isn't it?.....
Wow. America is really piss-weak these days, isn't it?.....
McConnell on Jan. 6 criminal referral of Trump: ‘Entire nation knows who is responsible for that day’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday issued a terse response to the House Jan. 6 select committee’s decision to refer criminal charges against former President Trump to the Just…
thehill.com
Jan. 6 Committee criminal referrals of Trump are political 'theater,' DOJ likely to 'ignore' say legal experts
Former prosecutors call January 6 Committee's criminal referrals of Trump political 'theater'
Legal experts say that the House January 6 Committee's criminal referrals of former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for his involvement in the 2021 Capitol protests are "theater" and will likely be ignored by the DOJ, and they could possibly have a counterproductive effect should the DOJ decide to bring charges.
The Jan. 6 panel held what is expected to be their final meeting Monday and voted unanimously to issue criminal referrals to the DOJ on Trump for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the federal government, making a false statement, and inciting, assisting or aiding and comforting an insurrection.
The committee’s unprecedented criminal referral holds no official legal weight, and a final determination in whether to pursue the charges will be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy, former federal prosecutor, called the referrals "theater" since they don’t have any legal binding. He believes the DOJ will "ignore" the referrals for that reason and because they could be a prosecutorial liability in the DOJ’s ongoing probe into Trump.
TRUMP REFERRED TO DOJ FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION BY JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE
"In effect, it is theater because there it doesn't have any binding effect," McCarthy said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I think the Justice Department will ignore it."
"The concern that the Justice Department has, or at least should have, is that they [the criminal referrals] can have the counterproductive effect of undermining whatever prosecution, if any, that the Justice Department decides to bring because they give former President Trump the ability to make the claim, if he's charged, that the charges are the result of political pressure rather than evidence," McCarthy added.
"Even if they brought criminal charges that were based solely on evidence that they believed was reliable, they would still have to combat an argument in the trial that a heavily dominated Democratic committee induced the Democratic Justice Department to bring criminal charges in order to sideline the sitting Democratic president’s likely rival in the 2024 election, which is not a position to want to be in as a prosecutor," McCarthy said.
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley, another former prosecutor and professor at Georgetown University Law School, said Monday’s business meeting that was heavily choreographed "missed the mark" in an effort to present a case that Trump should be criminally charged.
Jan. 6 Committee criminal referrals of Trump are political 'theater,' DOJ likely to 'ignore' say legal experts
Legal expert says that DOJ is likely to "ignore" the committee's criminal referrals of former President Trump and could have a counterproductive effect.
www.foxnews.com
I just downloaded the 156 page pdf of the Executive Summary, so I could actually read exact;ly what was written. Without any editorializing by any media.
So far got to page 15. Wow, that is a very well written document so far. Clear, concise, factual, and referenced. I think it will be as interesting a read as a novel.
But had to come here to see the Trumptard' s start opining on it, knowing full well they won't even read the Executive Summary. Will rely onFox news or the My Pillow Guy.
So far got to page 15. Wow, that is a very well written document so far. Clear, concise, factual, and referenced. I think it will be as interesting a read as a novel.
But had to come here to see the Trumptard' s start opining on it, knowing full well they won't even read the Executive Summary. Will rely onFox news or the My Pillow Guy.
If America was really smart (and it isn't) it would strip McConnell (and other cowards) of their fortunes and dump them naked on an anthill somewhere covered in honey.....View attachment 196682
McConnell on Jan. 6 criminal referral of Trump: ‘Entire nation knows who is responsible for that day’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday issued a terse response to the House Jan. 6 select committee’s decision to refer criminal charges against former President Trump to the Just…
Why would the DOJ ignore criminal referrals, especially for such high-level perpetrators?Jan. 6 Committee criminal referrals of Trump are political 'theater,' DOJ likely to 'ignore' say legal experts
Former prosecutors call January 6 Committee's criminal referrals of Trump political 'theater'
Legal experts say that the House January 6 Committee's criminal referrals of former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for his involvement in the 2021 Capitol protests are "theater" and will likely be ignored by the DOJ, and they could possibly have a counterproductive effect should the DOJ decide to bring charges.
The Jan. 6 panel held what is expected to be their final meeting Monday and voted unanimously to issue criminal referrals to the DOJ on Trump for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the federal government, making a false statement, and inciting, assisting or aiding and comforting an insurrection.
The committee’s unprecedented criminal referral holds no official legal weight, and a final determination in whether to pursue the charges will be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy, former federal prosecutor, called the referrals "theater" since they don’t have any legal binding. He believes the DOJ will "ignore" the referrals for that reason and because they could be a prosecutorial liability in the DOJ’s ongoing probe into Trump.
TRUMP REFERRED TO DOJ FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION BY JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE
"In effect, it is theater because there it doesn't have any binding effect," McCarthy said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I think the Justice Department will ignore it."
"The concern that the Justice Department has, or at least should have, is that they [the criminal referrals] can have the counterproductive effect of undermining whatever prosecution, if any, that the Justice Department decides to bring because they give former President Trump the ability to make the claim, if he's charged, that the charges are the result of political pressure rather than evidence," McCarthy added.
"Even if they brought criminal charges that were based solely on evidence that they believed was reliable, they would still have to combat an argument in the trial that a heavily dominated Democratic committee induced the Democratic Justice Department to bring criminal charges in order to sideline the sitting Democratic president’s likely rival in the 2024 election, which is not a position to want to be in as a prosecutor," McCarthy said.
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley, another former prosecutor and professor at Georgetown University Law School, said Monday’s business meeting that was heavily choreographed "missed the mark" in an effort to present a case that Trump should be criminally charged.
View attachment 196683Jan. 6 Committee criminal referrals of Trump are political 'theater,' DOJ likely to 'ignore' say legal experts
Legal expert says that DOJ is likely to "ignore" the committee's criminal referrals of former President Trump and could have a counterproductive effect.
If the DOJ ignores this, then they should be investigated too!
Don't worry Fox fake news will have wall to wall coverage of the porn found on Hunter's laptop.
Trump not even a president anymore so he should not be in the news! real Patriots demand to see Hunter's dick!
You're wrong
Trump referred to DOJ for criminal prosecution by January 6 Committee
The committee announced the referrals during its final meeting before the Republican-led House takes over next year
Trump referred to DOJ for criminal prosecution by January 6 Committee
The House Select Committee to Investigate January 6 announced it is referring Trump to DOJ, recommending the former president be criminally prosecuted over his role in the Capitol riot.
www.foxnews.com
I guess its really true then!You're wrong
Trump referred to DOJ for criminal prosecution by January 6 Committee
The committee announced the referrals during its final meeting before the Republican-led House takes over next year
Trump referred to DOJ for criminal prosecution by January 6 Committee
The House Select Committee to Investigate January 6 announced it is referring Trump to DOJ, recommending the former president be criminally prosecuted over his role in the Capitol riot.
No. I’m not. At 6:10 pm they had nothing. I scrolled up and down and down and up looking.You're wrong
Trump referred to DOJ for criminal prosecution by January 6 Committee
The committee announced the referrals during its final meeting before the Republican-led House takes over next year
Trump referred to DOJ for criminal prosecution by January 6 Committee
The House Select Committee to Investigate January 6 announced it is referring Trump to DOJ, recommending the former president be criminally prosecuted over his role in the Capitol riot.
It took them time to form their narrative and give the on air interviews the new talking points. It takes effort to just make shit up.
