After 18 months, referral seeks accountability for Trump on Jan. 6

Washington — After 18 months of investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Jan. 6 Committee on Monday delivered its final verdict: The Justice Department should criminally charge former President Donald Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

In the committee’s 10th and final public hearing, its seven Democrats and two Republicans voted unanimously to refer four criminal charges against Trump and others to the Justice Department’s special counsel, Jack Smith.

“We believe, as we indicated in our criminal referral of Donald J. Trump, that there was evidence that he violated multiple criminal laws,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol.

“If the Justice Department concurs with that assessment and with the evidence, then he should be prosecuted like any other American,” Schiff said after the hearing. “No one should get a pass.”

The Justice Department and Office of Special Counsel declined to comment on the referrals.

The clock began to run out on the Trump probe after Republicans won control of the House for the next session of Congress. That forced committee members to wrap up their investigations, write and issue a report, due out Wednesday, and then dissolve the committee.

Here are takeaways from Monday’s hearing.

Third time — A Lucky Strike or Strike Out

The referral sent to the Justice Department Monday marks the third time the House has sought to hold Trump accountable for allegations of impeachable offenses or illegal actions.

A Senate majority acquitted Trump in early 2020 of impeachment charges of soliciting Ukraine to help him in the 2020 elections. And it acquitted Trump in early 2021 on incitement of insurrection on Jan. 6, falling just three votes short of the 60 needed to convict.

Asked if the House would finally succeed in holding Trump accountable on the third try, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md), a committee member who led the second House impeachment team, defended the first two attempts.

“I think he’s been held accountable in the eyes of history from the beginning and in the court of public opinion,” Raskin told Newsday after the hearing.

But on the criminal referrals he added, “At this point, it's out of our hands and it really belongs with the Department of Justice.”

Four charges, not three

Committee members had dropped hints it would refer three charges against Trump, but on Monday Raskin announced four criminal referrals.

Committee members raised the first two — obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, for the Jan. 6 attack that disrupted certification of President Joe Biden’s election — in March, after a federal judge ruled Trump likely violated both.

The members also had talked about the third: inciting and aiding an insurrection for Trump holding his Jan. 6 rally in Washington, urging the crowd to go the Capitol and then doing nothing for at least three hours to tell the rioters to stop.

But Raskin added a fourth — conspiracy to make a false statement.

“The evidence clearly suggests that President Trump conspired with others to submit slates of fake electors to Congress in the National Archives,” Raskin said. “We believe that this evidence we set forth in our report is more than sufficient for a criminal referral.”

Not just Trump

The committee did not limit criminal referrals to Trump.

“We don't try to determine all of the participants in this conspiracy, many of whom refused to answer our questions while under oath,” Raskin said. “We trust the Department of Justice will be able to form a more complete picture through its own investigation.”

Among the other targets: Attorney John Eastman, author of the debunked theory that the vice president could reject states’ electoral votes.

Also targeted, Raskin said, are Republican House members who refused to comply with the committee’s subpoenas: House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Andy Biggs of Arizona.

Trump’s bad week

Over the weekend, Trump began attacking the Jan. 6 Committee ahead of its hearing.

“Republicans and Patriots all over the land must stand strong and united against the Thugs and Scoundrels of the Unselect Committee,” he posted Sunday morning.

A few blocks from the hearing Monday, lawyers began jury selection in a trial of leaders of the right-wing Proud Boys for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack.

“Our Country is SICK inside, very much like a person dying of Cancer. The Crooked FBI, the so-called Department of “Justice,” and “Intelligence,” all parts of the Democrat Party and System, is the Cancer,” Trump posted Saturday.

On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee will meet to discuss whether to release the Trump tax returns that it obtained from the Internal Revenue Service.

“You can’t learn much from tax returns, but it is illegal to release them if they are not yours!” Trump posted Sunday.

On Wednesday, the Jan. 6 Committee will release the full final report on its investigation.