Donald Trump will be in the crosshairs of the Jan. 6 committee on Monday in a public meeting centered on accusing the former president of criminal conduct — its sharpest rebuke of Trump yet and the culmination of 18 months spent making the case he is personally culpable for the riot that unfolded at the Capitol last year.
The panel will hold its last meeting at 1 p.m., in which it will vote to release its final report and is expected to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department for several Trump allies — and the former president himself. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has offered few details but said the meeting will include a multimedia presentation and that all nine committee members will have a role.
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“Some of it will include some of the work we’ve done with the committee and give [the members] an opportunity to talk about a particular interest they might have,” he said, adding that the meeting will be shorter than the hearings that typically ran about two to three hours.
The criminal referrals it will issue are mostly symbolic, as Congress does not have the authority to prosecute. Thompson said last week that the panel will submit referrals to the Department of Justice and other agencies along with pertinent evidence. The categories of referrals include criminal, ethics, bar discipline, and campaign finance.
The crimes members believe they have uncovered would fall under the jurisdiction of the DOJ, the Federal Election Commission, or the House Ethics Committee, and the four most likely subjects are former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer John Eastman, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Trump himself will be among the referral targets, should the panel vote in favor, and committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said he believes Trump is guilty of a crime. The committee will vote on whether to refer the former president for three crimes, according to Politico: insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.
“I have to caveat it with that I’m not a Justice Department official. They have different levels of standards,” Kinzinger told CNN on Thursday. “I think he is absolutely guilty. And if he is not guilty of some kind of a crime, I mean, what we’ve basically said is presidents are above the law and they can do everything short of a coup as long as it doesn’t succeed.”
Most of the final report will also be released Monday following the meeting, including all eight chapters and an executive summary. The full report with attachments is expected to come out on Wednesday, according to Thompson. The report is said to focus mostly on Trump and his role in the riot.
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Since wrapping the last hearing in October, the committee has gathered testimony from more witnesses, including White House aide Anthony Ornato, Trump advisers Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks, and other Secret Service agents.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) instructed the committee to preserve its evidence for the incoming Republican House majority, which will shift the focus of the investigation from Trump to why law enforcement and intelligence agencies weren’t prepared for the riot.
