<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655651375264,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-fe9d-da96-ad7d-ffbf8a5c0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655651375264,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-fe9d-da96-ad7d-ffbf8a5c0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55502620", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1035210"} }); ","_id":"00000181-7c83-db25-adf7-7c9b0f540000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedFormer President Donald Trump “knew what he was doing” in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said Sunday.
Kinzinger, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, said he believes Trump’s actions amount to seditious conspiracy and “criminal involvement by a president.” However, the Republican, who is retiring at the end of this term, conceded that it is not up to the committee to bring charges.
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“The thing I think people need to stand out from these hearings: how much the president was involved in the lead-up to Jan. 6, how we got to a position where so many people charged the Capitol, because honestly, they believed that the election was stolen,” Kinzinger said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week. “The president knew what he was doing. There was a plan.”
Based on the committee’s findings, actions taken by Trump could result in charges being brought by the Justice Department,” the congressman indicated.
“I certainly think the president is guilty of knowing what he did, seditious conspiracy, being involved in these, you know, kind of, different segments of pressuring the DOJ, vice president, et cetera,” Kinzinger said. “Obviously, you know we’re not a criminal charges committee, so I want to be careful in specifically using that language. But I think what we’re presenting before the American people certainly would rise to a level of criminal involvement by a president.”
Trump has consistently written off the work of the Jan. 6 committee, calling it a political witch hunt. The committee has used its slate of summer hearings to tie the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Members of the Jan. 6 committee have yet to decide whether to issue a criminal referral to the Justice Department involving Trump and others, despite some believing they have enough evidence. Regardless of whether the panel makes a referral, the Justice Department could choose to prosecute, and Attorney General Merrick Garland said last week he and Jan. 6 prosecutors have been watching the committee’s summer hearings.
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Kinzinger, who is one of two Republican lawmakers on the committee, acknowledged that he has received personal threats amid his participation on the panel.
“This threat that came in, it was mailed to my house. We got it a couple of days ago, and it threatens to execute me, as well as my wife and 5-month-old child. We’ve never seen or had anything like that. It was sent from the local area,” Kinzinger said. “I don’t worry — but now that I have a wife and kids, of course, it’s a little different.”
