The Jan. 6 committee will be targeting Donald Trump in a public meeting on Monday that is focused on accusing the former president of criminal behavior. This is the committee’s harshest criticism of Trump to date, and it marks the conclusion of 18 months spent arguing that he is personally responsible for the riot that broke out at the Capitol last year.
The panel will convene its final meeting at 1 p.m., during which it will vote to release its final report and is anticipated to submit some of Trump’s allies — including the former president himself — for criminal prosecution. Although the meeting will feature a multimedia presentation and involve all nine committee members, chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has provided little details.
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The meeting, he added, will be shorter than the hearings, which normally lasted two to three hours. “Some of it will involve some of the work we’ve done with the committee and offer [the members] an opportunity to talk about a particular interest they might have,” he said.
Given that Congress lacks the power to bring charges, the criminal referrals it will make are primarily symbolic. The panel will send referrals to the Department of Justice and other authorities along with pertinent information, according to Thompson’s statement from last week. Campaign finance, ethical, criminal, and bar discipline are some of the referral categories.
The four most likely subjects are former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney John Eastman, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. The crimes that members of the committee believe they have uncovered would fall under the purview of the DOJ, the Federal Election Commission, or the House Ethics Committee.
Should the panel vote in favor, Trump himself will be one of the referral targets, and committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) stated he believes Trump is guilty of a crime. According to Politico, the committee will decide whether to submit the former president for charges related to three offenses: rebellion, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to defraud the federal government.
“I should qualify my statement by saying that I’m not a Justice Department employee. They adhere to various norms, “Kinzinger said on Thursday to CNN. “He is definitely guilty, in my opinion. And if he is not charged with a crime, we have essentially stated that he is above the law and is free to take whatever action short of a coup as long as it is unsuccessful.”
The majority of the final report, which includes all eight chapters and an executive summary, will also be made public on Monday after the meeting. According to Thompson, the complete report along with attachments is anticipated to be released on Wednesday. The investigation reportedly focuses mostly on Trump and his involvement in the disturbance.
Since the conclusion of the first hearing in October, the committee has obtained testimony from more witnesses, including Secret Service agents, Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks, as well as White House employee Anthony Ornato. In order to shift the focus of the probe from Trump to the reason why law enforcement and intelligence services weren’t ready for the riot, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) asked the committee to retain its evidence for the new Republican House majority.
