The January 6 committee is referring Donald Trump to be criminally charged on four counts, the panel announced on Monday after a unanimous vote.
The recommended charges were obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and ‘inciting,’ ‘aiding’ or ‘assisting’ an insurrection.
Monday’s hearing also saw new damning testimony from ex-Trump aide Hope Hicks, who testified that he ‘refused’ to put out a statement warning against violence in the lead-up to January 6.
Hicks also testified about warning Trump that he could harm his legacy by pushing his election fraud claims.
‘The only thing that matters is winning,’ the ex-president allegedly responded.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who led a subcommittee on the criminal referrals, pointed out that the final charge – if Trump is found guilty – triggers ‘automatic grounds for disqualification from ever holding public office again, at the federal or state level.’
He also said a criminal referral would be sent for pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman.
Chairman Bennie Thompson said Monday’s public meeting would be the select committee’s final one before it dissolves at the end of the year
‘The President has an affirmative and primary constitutional duty to act to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Nothing could be a greater betrayal of this duty than to assist in insurrection against the constitutional order,’ Raskin said.
In other developments:
Lawmakers made the stunning decision during the panel’s final public hearing before the select committee is dissolved at the end of this year.
‘The dangerous assault on American constitutional democracy that took place on January 6 2021 consists of hundreds of individual criminal offenses. Most such crimes are already being prosecuted by the Department of Justice,’ Raskin said.
‘Ours is not a system of justice, where foot soldiers go to jail and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass.’
No US president has been the subject of a criminal referral by Congress until now.
‘At the heart of our republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power,’ said Vice Chair Liz Cheney at the outset of the hearing. ‘Every president in our history has accepted this orderly transfer of authority except one.’
‘In addition to being unlawful as described in our report, this was an utter moral failure and a clear dereliction of duty,’ she said at another point.
The meeting is a culmination of more than a year’s investigative work and nine public hearings.
The lawmakers accused Trump of knowingly misleading millions of supporters about the 2020 election’s validity
Lawmakers on the panel have heard from dozens of witnesses – mainly Republicans – and obtained thousands of pages’ worth of correspondences and other documents that paint a picture of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Cheney said, ‘among the most shameful of this committee’s findings is that President Trump sat in the dining room by the Oval Office watching the Capitol riot on television.’
‘If this is a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again,’ Chairman Bennie Thompson said in his opening remarks.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, outlined ‘concerning’ efforts by Trump-allied parties to use political fundraising dollars to offer legal representation or jobs to committee witnesses.
In one instance, Lofgren said a witness told the panel that she ‘was offered potential employment that would make her “financially very comfortable” as the date of her testimony approached by entities that were apparently linked to Donald Trump and his associates.’
The offer never materialized, the Democrat said, but added that the panel has received additional testimony ‘from new witnesses who have come forward to tell us about their conversations with ex-President Trump on this topic.’
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The committee elaborated on its reasoning in an executive summary of its forthcoming report, obtained by DailyMail.com.
In the 161-page introductory document, lawmakers detail five points they believe directly link Trump to criminal culpability over the US Capitol attack.
Of the insurrection charge, they point out that a majority of the US Senate voted to impeach Trump last year for a similar ‘incitement’ accusation and that a federal court ruled his speech on the White House Ellipse that day was ‘plausibly words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment.’
‘Both the purpose and the effect of the President’s actions were to mobilize a large crowd to descend on the Capitol,’ the report states.
‘During the ensuing riot, the President refused to condemn the violence or encourage the crowd to disperse despite repeated pleas from his staff and family that he do so.’
On the obstruction charge, the committee outlines instances of Trump impeding their probe and writes that on January 6 itself, that ‘through action and inaction, President Trump corruptly obstructed, delayed and impeded the vote count.’
The panel also highlights Trump and his legal team’s efforts to challenge the election results in several states, calling them an attempt to ‘prevent or delay the counting of lawful’ Electoral College ballots.
But the ex-president’s pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to go along with a faulty legal theory that claimed he had the unilateral right to overturn the election could ‘solely’ argue the obstruction charge by itself, the lawmakers claim.
For that, the committee also believes ‘sufficient evidence exists for a criminal referral of John Eastman.’ The pro-Trump lawyer was the author behind the infamous legal memo that embroiled Pence in the ex-president’s plan.
In another section of the report, the lawmakers directly accuse Trump of witness tampering.
‘The Select Committee is aware of multiple efforts by President Trump to contact Select Committee witnesses,’ the report states.
‘The Department of Justice is aware of at least one of those circumstances.’
The first excerpt from the committee’s bombshell final report also reveals lawmakers’ doubts over the veracity of some witness testimonies.
Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who was interviewed early in the probe, reportedly ‘seemed evasive, as if she was testifying from pre-prepared talking points’ for part of her testimony.
‘In multiple instances, McEnany’s testimony did not seem nearly as forthright as that of her press office staff, who testified about what McEnany said,’ the report states.
It cites her ‘disputing suggestions’ that Trump did not want to condemn the violence unfolding at the US Capitol on January 6, directly contradicting statements made by her former press aide Sarah Matthews.
Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, was ‘not as forthcoming’ in her testimony as other former members of his administration.
‘Indeed, Ivanka Trump’s Chief of Staff Julie Radford had a more specific recollection of Ivanka Trump’s actions and statements,’ the panel states.
For several members – including both Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – Monday’s meeting was their final public event as House legislators.
Throughout the public phase of their probe, the committee has sought to prove that the former president was well aware that he lost to Joe Biden when he was publicly promoting his election fraud claims – and that members of his team reminded him of that fact multiple times.
Additionally, they accused Trump of using his fraud theories to fundraise from his supporters, therefore knowingly misleading them.
And lawmakers say the Capitol riot was not a spontaneous outbreak of violence but rather, as Vice Chair Cheney said at one early hearing, Trump and his allies’ ‘last stand’ to try and upend a democratically held election.
The Justice Department is already probing the former president’s alleged plan to overturn the 2020 election.
An ongoing federal investigation into Trump and his allies’ efforts to upend Georgia’s electoral count recently heated up with the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith, a former Hague prosecutor who the ex-president has repeatedly attacked since taking on the new role.
