Jan 6 panel urges Trump prosecution with criminal referral

A video of former President Donald Trump is shown on a screen, 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. [AP Photo]

The House Jan. 6 committee has unveiled a criminal referral for former President Donald Trump, citing evidence that it says merits prosecution by the Justice Department.

Among the crimes the panel cited are obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding in an insurrection and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The referral has mostly symbolic import, and it will ultimately be up to the Justice Department, which has been conducting its own investigation, to decide what charges if any to bring.

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.

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

While a criminal referral is mostly symbolic, with the Justice Department ultimately deciding whether to prosecute 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 Trump "broke the faith" that people have when they cast ballots in a democracy. "He lost the 2020 election and knew it," 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."

Thompson 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."

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 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 Trump, a Republican, is to blame for the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters almost two years ago.

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 Trump's lies about widespread election fraud and sending lawmakers and others running for their lives.

The attack came after weeks of 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 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 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.