The Committee referred to Jan. 6 Criminal Charges Against Donald Trump at DOJ

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The US House committee investigating the riots in Jan. 6, 2021, officially recommended that the Department of Justice file four criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, including conspiracy to defraud the government and inciting an insurrection.

Saying Trump “wants to ride like Mussolini on the shoulders of the mob,” Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said the committee voted to refer the 75-year-old former president to the Department of Justice for allegedly obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government, inciting rebellion and conspiracy to make a false statement.

Raskin added that the committee will refer Trump attorney John Eastman for allegedly obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the government.

According to a preview of the committee’s final report, they will also refer four members of congress to the House Ethics Committee for refusing to comply with subpoenas: House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Jim Jordan, Rep. Scott Perry and Rep. Andy Biggs.

John Eastman. Susan Walsh/AP/Shutterstock

Eastman, a former professor at Chapman University, described himself as Trump’s lawyer helping the then-president in his efforts to prove that the 2020 election was “stolen.”

But, according to filings made public by the committee earlier, Eastman was more than an adviser: “He spoke at the rally on the morning of January 6, spreading proven lies to the thousands of people who attended that rally, and appears to have a wider role in many of the specific issues investigated by the Select Committee.”

In response to the committee’s questions, Eastman invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, the filing said, and attempted to “hide a range of relevant documents behind claims of attorney-client privilege and work product protection.”

Because the criminal referrals themselves carry no official legal weight, they are largely symbolic and come just weeks before Republicans take control of the House, effectively ending the committee’s work altogether. It is now up to the Justice Department whether or not to indict the former president or Eastman.

Chaos in the Capitol in Jan. 6, 2021. Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty

The referrals come as the Justice Department is already looking into the events surrounding Jan. 6, and has been hearing testimony for months in a criminal investigation of the riots.

Recent testimony by those close to former Vice President Mike Pence offers an indication that the Justice Department’s January 6 criminal investigation is intensifying, according to recent reporting by The New York Times.

The committee hearings, which began to be made public in June, featured new revelations about the events leading up to the attacks and how Trump and his allies responded.

Among the most notable allegations is that Trump tried to force his Secret Service agents to drive him right out of the Capitol building while his supporters descended on the building.

The House committee’s final report is scheduled to be released Wednesday, and will give the DOJ more evidence to work with as they consider potential cases.

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Trump continued to embrace the extremism expressed by those who participated in the Capitol riots, which culminated in the death of a Capitol police officer who died after being beaten by rioters. Several other officers were beaten, some suffering life-threatening injuries.

Since leaving office in 2021, Trump has continued to express solidarity for the rioters who entered the Capitol that day, filmed on video as recently as this month in which he said they were treated “very, very unfairly .”

The announcement of the criminal referrals comes amid several other investigations into Trump, including one over his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

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