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Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its final meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 19, 2022. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., left, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., right. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Jan. 6 committee urges Trump prosecution with criminal referral

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jan. 6 committee urges Trump prosecution with criminal referral

Warning: The video below contains language some may find offensive.

This article was updated at 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 19, 2022.

WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up its investigation of the violent 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, with lawmakers on Monday declaring that they have assembled a “roadmap to justice” to bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his allies.

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As they cap one of the most exhaustive and aggressive congressional probes in memory, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are recommending criminal charges against Mr. Trump and associates who helped him launch a multifaceted pressure campaign to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, seen at the Justice Department on Oct. 24.
The Washington Post
What the Jan. 6 committee's criminal referrals for Trump mean for the Justice Department

The committee alleged violations of four criminal statutes by Mr. Trump, in both the run-up to the riot and during the insurrection itself, as it recommended the former president for prosecution to the Justice Department. The charges recommended by the committee are conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to make a false statement and insurrection.

While a criminal referral is mostly symbolic, with the Justice Department ultimately deciding whether to prosecute Mr. Trump or others, it is a decisive end to a probe that had an almost singular focus from the start.

Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the criminal justice system can provide accountability, adding, “We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice.”

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Mr. Thompson said Mr. Trump “broke the faith” that people have when they cast ballots in a democracy. “He lost the 2020 election and knew it," Mr. Thompson said. “But he chose to try to stay in office through a multi-part scheme to overturn the results and block the transfer of power."

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chairwoman, said in opening remarks that every president in American history has defended the orderly transfer of power, “except one.”

The committee also voted 9-0 to approve its final report, which will include findings, interview transcripts and legislative recommendations. The report is expected to be released in full Wednesday.

The panel, which will dissolve on Jan. 3 with the new Republican-led House, has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, held 10 well-watched public hearings and collected more than a million documents since it launched in July 2021. As it has gathered the massive trove of evidence, the members have become emboldened in declaring that Mr. Trump, a Republican, is to blame for the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters almost two years ago.

Former President Donald Trump gestures as he announces he is running for president for the third time as he speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Nov. 15, 2022.
The Associated Press
GOP's usual embrace of Trump muted after Jan. 6 committee's criminal referral

After beating their way past police, injuring many of them, the Jan. 6 rioters stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election win, echoing Mr. Trump's lies about widespread election fraud and sending lawmakers and others running for their lives.

The attack came after weeks of Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat — a campaign that was extensively detailed by the committee in its multiple public hearings, and laid out again by lawmakers on the panel on Monday. Many of Mr. Trump’s former aides testified about his unprecedented pressure on states, on federal officials and on Vice President Mike Pence to find a way to thwart the popular will. The committee has also described in great detail how Mr. Trump riled up the crowd at a rally that morning and then did little to stop his supporters for several hours as he watched the violence unfold on television.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democratic member of the panel, said ahead of the hearing that Mr. Trump is someone who “in multiple ways tried to pressure state officials to find votes that didn’t exist, this is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol."

“If that’s not criminal, then I don’t know what it is,” Mr. Schiff said.

The panel aired some new evidence at the meeting, including a recent interview with longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks. Describing a conversation she had with Mr. Trump around that time, she said he told her that no one would care about his legacy if he lost the election.

Ms. Hicks told the committee that Mr. Trump told her, “The only thing that matters is winning."

While a so-called criminal referral has no real legal standing, it is a forceful statement by the committee and adds to political pressure already on Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel Jack Smith, who is conducting an investigation into Jan. 6 and Mr. Trump’s actions.

“We obviously want to complete the story for the American people,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., another member of the committee. “Everybody has come on a journey with us and we want a satisfactory conclusion, such that people feel that Congress has done its job.”

The panel was formed in the summer of 2021 after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of what would have been a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurrection. When that effort failed, the Democratic-controlled House formed an investigative committee of its own.

As the committee was getting started, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, a Trump ally, decided not to participate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected some of his appointments. That left an opening for two anti-Trump Republicans in the House — Ms. Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — to join seven Democrats, launching an unusually unified panel in the divided Congress.

While the committee’s mission was to take a comprehensive accounting of the insurrection and educate the public about what happened, they've also aimed their work at an audience of one: the attorney general. Lawmakers on the panel have openly pressured Mr. Garland to investigate Mr. Trump’s actions, and last month he appointed a special counsel, Mr. Smith, to oversee two probes related to Mr. Trump, including those related to the insurrection and the presence of classified documents at Mr. Trump's Florida estate.

In court documents earlier this year, the committee suggested criminal charges against Mr. Trump could include conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress.

In a “conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the committee argues that evidence supports an inference that Mr. Trump and his allies “entered into an agreement to defraud the United States” when they disseminated misinformation about election fraud and pressured state and federal officials to assist in that effort. Mr. Trump still says he won the election to this day.

The panel also asserts that Mr. Trump obstructed an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress in which the Electoral College votes are certified. The committee said Mr. Trump either attempted or succeeded at obstructing, influencing or impeding the ceremonial process on Jan. 6 and “did so corruptly” by pressuring Mr. Pence to try to overturn the results as he presided over the session. Mr. Pence declined to do so.

A criminal referral on the charge of insurrection is a clear effort to hold Mr. Trump directly accountable for the rioters who stormed the building. The rarely used insurrection statute criminalizes any effort to incite, engage in or assist a rebellion or insurrection “against the authority of the United States.”

The committee may make ethics referrals for five House Republicans — including Mr. McCarthy — who ignored congressional subpoenas from the panel.

The panel subpoenaed Mr. McCarthy, R-Calif., and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama. The panel has investigated Mr. McCarthy’s conversations with Mr. Trump the day of the attack and meetings the four other lawmakers had with the White House beforehand as Mr. Trump and some of his allies worked to overturn his election defeat.

First Published: December 19, 2022, 5:58 p.m.
Updated: December 20, 2022, 11:54 a.m.

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Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its final meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 19, 2022. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., left, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., right. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is seen in an elevator on the Capitol complex, before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its final meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 19, 2022.  (AP)
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