The January 6 committee will take up criminal referrals against Donald Trump

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The House Select Jan. 6 Committee will seek criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump on at least two charges: obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to a source familiar with the committee’s discussions but not authorized to speak publicly on the plans.

The referrals will be voted on Monday, during what is likely to be the panel’s last public meeting before it adjourns at the end of the month.

Referrals will come in the form of a letter from the committee to the Justice Department that will make its case for prosecution. Referrals do not carry any legal weight or compel the Justice Department to act.

The referrals are part of a larger list of recommendations from a subpanel of the committee’s lawyers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. Other members include Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Adam Schiff of California and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. The subpanel was created in October to address criminal referrals and other recommendations.

Monday’s meeting culminated a nearly two-year investigation into what led to the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 as a group of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from verifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which was won by Joe Biden.

The committee’s final report, which Chairman Bennie Thompson previously told NPR could be about 1,000 pages long, could be released as soon as Monday. Appendices and report transcripts of more than 1,000 witness interviews are expected to be released on Wednesday.

In addition to criminal referrals, the panel can issue other categories of referrals to the Federal Election Commission, House Ethics Committee, and bar associations to discipline lawyers.

The Justice Department is separately conducting its own extensive investigation into the events of January 6 with a special counsel.

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