The U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in a historic vote agreed unanimously Monday to refer former President Donald Trump and others to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges, including inciting or aiding an insurrection.
The committee also refers three Trump associates to the Justice Department for their roles in the attack while referring four House Republicans to the ethics committee for refusing to testify
In a post to his own social media network on Monday, Truth Social, Trump promoted another Dec. 9 post that linked to his video on Jan. 6 telling supporters to leave the Capitol. Committee members said that video came after more than three hours of inaction as Trump watched the attack.
Four counts
The committee’s seven Democrats and two Republicans all voted to refer Trump for criminal charges on four counts:
- Obstructing an official proceeding;
- Conspiring to defraud the United States;
- Conspiring to make a false statement;
- Inciting, assisting or aiding an insurrection.
Ethics Committee referral
The panel also referred Biggs, Jordan, Perry and McCarthy to their chamber’s ethics panel.
Those members “had materially relevant communications” with Trump on Jan. 6 and the days leading up to the attack, and withheld that information from the panel, the committee said.
In an email, a spokesman for Jordan dismissed the accusation.
“This is just another partisan and political stunt made by” the committee, Jordan spokesman Russell Dye wrote Monday.
‘Masterminds and ringleaders’
Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said Trump violated the basis of U.S. democracy and that criminal referrals were important to seek accountability and ensure that a similar insurrection on the U.S. government is never attempted again.
“Evidence we’ve gathered points to further action beyond the power of this committee or the Congress to help ensure accountability under law, accountability that can only be found in the criminal justice system,” Thompson said.
Fake electors
The committee’s recommendation for two of the criminal charges, conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement, centered on the scheme to use slates of false electors from states that Trump lost in 2020: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Some 84 Republicans, including dozens of party leaders, signed on to the bogus documents.
“These intentionally false documents were transmitted to multiple officers of the federal government,” said U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat. “And were intended to interfere with the proper conduct of the joint session, where the existence of so-called competing slates of electors would serve as a pretext for legitimate electoral votes to be rejected.”
“The Committee has reached important conclusions about the evidence it has developed, and I respect those findings.
“Our Founders made clear that, in the United States of America, no one is above the law. This bedrock principle remains unequivocally true, and justice must be done.”