Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said the panel’s last public meeting will be held on Dec. 19 ahead of the final report’s release on Dec. 21.
Thompson told reporters the committee will use the final meeting, slated for about 1 p.m., to vote on criminal referrals and agree to the public release of the report. The criminal referrals will be directed at several top Trump allies for their involvement in the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE TO MAKE CRIMINAL REFERRALS TO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Thompson said the five to six categories for referrals include criminal, ethics, bar discipline, and campaign finance, along with a few others, according to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney. Criminal referrals would go to the Department of Justice along with caches of evidence laying out the reasons they should be prosecuted because the committee does not have the authority to prosecute on its own.
Four allies of former President Donald Trump are the likely subjects of the referrals. They are former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer John Eastman, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, but Thompson has said the committee is still deciding exactly who it will refer. Meadows was already held in contempt of Congress and referred to the DOJ for prosecution, but it declined to press charges.
Thompson said last week that the referrals will be made publicly.
“There will be some form of public presentation. We haven’t decided exactly what that would be,” he said.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to the committee for confirmation but did not receive a response.
The report is expected to focus mostly on Trump’s role in the rally that turned into a riot on Jan. 6, 2021, with seven of the eight chapters having his name in the title.
