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How to watch the House Jan. 6 committee vote on criminal referrals at final meeting

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Washington — The House Jan. 6 committee is holding what is expected to be its final meeting on Monday, where members will vote on formally adopting the committee’s final report and possible criminal referrals to the Justice Department. 

The proceedings mark the culmination of the panel’s nearly 18-month-long investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol, which featured testimony from dozens of witnesses and a series of high-profile hearings that examined the assault and former President Donald Trump’s role in stoking his supporters to storm the building. CBS News will air the proceedings as a special report at 1 p.m. ET on CBS television stations and its streaming network. 

The committee is expected to make criminal referrals, although the members have not confirmed who they will refer to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland named Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s own probe into alleged efforts to interfere with the transfer of power in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.

Criminal referrals by Congress are solely recommendations, and the Justice Department is under no obligation to bring charges against those referred for prosecution. Still, the committee’s referrals could increase political pressure on the department to act, and lawmakers could unveil new evidence in their final report that federal prosecutors have not yet accessed. 

The committee has already issued referrals for several Trump associates who refused to comply with subpoenas to appear before the committee, including former adviser Steve Bannon, who was tried and convicted on two charges of contempt of Congress.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, one of the members of the committee, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believes, as a former prosecutor, that the department has collected “sufficient” evidence to charge Trump. 

Another committee member, Rep. Jamie Raskin, told “CBS Sunday Morning” earlier this month that “people are hungering for justice and for accountability and consequences here.”

“I know that people feel that we need to make sure that accountability runs all the way to the top. Just because you’re elected president, or used to be president, does not give you the right to engage in crimes freely,” said Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland. 

The Jan. 6 committee was formed in July 2021 after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s attempts to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the attack, similar to the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, were thwarted by Senate Republicans. The committee includes seven Democrats and two Republicans — Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — who broke with GOP leadership to join.

The committee began its investigative work with a hearing held in July 2021 that featured several law enforcement officers. Over the next 11 months, the committee conducted more than 100 interviews, including with some in Trump’s inner circle and even in his family, and subpoenaed more than 1,000 documents.

The committee then held a series of blockbuster public hearings beginning in June to present some of the evidence that had been gathered. In the hearings, the committee focused on different parts of what members have alleged was a multi-pronged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results, including pressure campaigns on then-Vice President Mike Pence and his staff and top members of the Justice Department as well as local and state elections officials. 

The committee also shed light on an alleged scheme by Trump and his allies to replace electors in seven battleground states won by President Biden, with a slate of Trump electors. Committee chair Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said in July that the lawmakers were speaking with the Justice Department about the alleged scheme. 

The hearings sought to tie Trump to the mobilization of his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The committee showed recorded testimony from witnesses, never-before-seen video from the day of the riot, in-person testimony from an injured Capitol police officer, and interviews with members of the Trump White House, his campaign, Pence’s office, a retired federal judge, state and local elections officials, a former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers and an Ohio man who pleaded guilty for his role in the Jan. 6 riot.

In the final hearing in October, the committee voted to subpoena Trump for documents and testimony. They issued the subpoena in mid-November, and Trump filed a lawsuit attempting to quash it.

Trump has maintained he did nothing wrong on Jan. 6, and that the investigation by what he calls the “Unselect Committee of political hacks” is a “witch hunt.” 

Thompson said last week that the committee had made more criminal referrals, although he did not elaborate on those targeted. Schiff told “Face the Nation” on Dec. 11 that he believes the Justice Department has “made use” of evidence presented in the committee’s hearings, and will do the same for the information included in its report.

The committee is sunsetting before the next Congress takes over in January. Four of its members are not returning to Congress: Cheney lost the Republican primary in Wyoming in August to a Trump-backed challenger; Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria lost in the general election in November; and Kinzinger and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy opted not to run for reelection.

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Senate Democrats near passage of Inflation Reduction Act in marathon session

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Washington — Democrats drove their election-year economic package toward Senate approval on Sunday, debating a measure with less ambition than President Biden’s original domestic vision but that touches deep-rooted party dreams of slowing global warming, moderating pharmaceutical costs and taxing immense corporations.

Debate began Saturday and by sunrise on Sunday, Democrats had swatted down a dozen Republican efforts to torpedo the legislation, with no clear end in sight. Despite unanimous GOP opposition, Democratic unity in the 50-50 chamber — buttressed by Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote — suggested the party was on track for a morale-boosting victory three months from elections when congressional control is at stake.

The House planned to return briefly from summer recess Friday for what Democrats hope will be final congressional approval.

“I think it’s gonna pass,” Mr. Biden told reporters as he left the White House early Sunday to go to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, ending his COVID-19 isolation. The House seemed on track to provide final congressional approval when it returns briefly from summer recess on Friday.

“It will reduce inflation. It will lower prescription drug costs. It will fight climate change. It will close tax loopholes and it will reduce and reduce the deficit,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, said of the package. “It will help every citizen in this country and make America a much better place.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Aug. 5, 2022.

Bloomberg / Getty Images


Republicans said the measure would undermine an economy that policymakers are struggling to keep from plummeting into recession. They said the bill’s business taxes would hurt job creation and force prices skyward, making it harder for people to cope with the nation’s worst inflation since the 1980s.

“Democrats have already robbed American families once through inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families a second time,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky argued. He said spending and tax increases in the legislation would eliminate jobs while having insignificant impact on inflation and climate change.

Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, too, said the plan will raise taxes and harm the economy.

“We shouldn’t be cutting Medicare like this,” Scott said in an interview on “Face the Nation.” “We shouldn’t be raising taxes ever but especially in a recession. And why would we be raising the taxes on gas right now when it’s $2 above what it was when Joe Biden took office. This is going to continue to drive us into a bigger recession than we are.”

Nonpartisan analysts have said Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act” would have a minor effect on surging consumer prices. The bill is barely more than one-tenth the size of Biden’s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion rainbow of progressive aspirations and abandons its proposals for universal preschool, paid family leave and expanded child care aid.

Even so, the new measure gives Democrats a campaign-season showcase for action on coveted goals. It includes the largest ever federal effort on climate change — close to $400 billion — hands Medicare the power to negotiate pharmaceutical prices and extends expiring subsidies that help 13 million people afford health insurance.

But Scott predicted the plan will be a boon for GOP candidates on the ballot in November.

“This bill is not going to help Democrats. It’s going to help Republicans,” he told “Face the Nation.” “Raising taxes $700 billion, cutting Medicare $280 billion, raising gas taxes, having 87,000 more IRS agents. Do you know how happy people are to have more IRS agents out there? I mean, this is not going to be popular around the country.”


Sen. Rick Scott accuses Democrats of “pushing us into a recession”

11:57

Mr. Biden’s original measure collapsed after conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia opposed it, saying it was too costly and would fuel inflation.

In an ordeal imposed on all budget bills like this one, the Senate descended into an hourslong “vote-a-rama” of rapid-fire amendments. Each tested Democrats’ ability to hold together a compromise negotiated by Schumer, progressives, Manchin and the inscrutable centrist Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont offered amendments to further expand the legislation’s health benefits, and those efforts were defeated. But most proposed changes were fashioned by Republicans to unravel the bill or force Democrats into votes on dangerous political terrain.

One GOP proposal would have forced the Biden administration to continue Trump-era restrictions that cited the pandemic for reducing the flow of migrants across the Southwest border.

Earlier this year, Democrats facing tough reelections supported such an extension, forcing the party to drop its push for COVID-19 spending when Republicans conjoined the two issues. This time, with their far larger economic legislation at stake and elections approaching, Democrats rallied against the border controls.

Other GOP amendments would have required more gas and oil leasing on federal lands and blocked a renewal of a fee on oil that helps finance toxic waste cleanups. All were rejected on party-line votes. Republicans accused Democrats of being soft on border security and opening the door to higher energy and gas costs.

Before debate began Saturday, the bill’s prescription drug price curbs were diluted by the Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian. Elizabeth MacDonough, who referees questions about the chamber’s procedures, said a provision should fall that would impose costly penalties on drug makers whose price increases for private insurers exceed inflation.

It was the bill’s chief protection for the 180 million people with private health coverage they get through work or purchase themselves. Under special procedures that will let Democrats pass their bill by simple majority without the usual 60-vote margin, its provisions must be focused more on dollar-and-cents budget numbers than policy changes.

But the thrust of their pharmaceutical price language remained. That included letting Medicare negotiate what it pays for drugs for its 64 million elderly recipients, penalizing manufacturers for exceeding inflation for pharmaceuticals sold to Medicare and limiting beneficiaries out-of-pocket drug costs to $2,000 annually.

Democrats wanted to include a provision in the bill that would have capped patients’ costs for insulin, the expensive diabetes medication, at $35 monthly. But that proposal ran afoul of the parliamentarian’s ruling that it couldn’t be added, and Democrats failed to garner the 60 votes needed to disregard the rule, by a vote of 57 to 43 on Sunday morning.

The measure’s final costs were being recalculated to reflect late changes, but overall it would raise more than $700 billion over a decade. The money would come from a 15% minimum tax on a handful of corporations with yearly profits above $1 billion, a 1% tax on companies that repurchase their own stock, bolstered IRS tax collections and government savings from lower drug costs.

Sinema forced Democrats to drop a plan to prevent wealthy hedge fund managers from paying less than individual income tax rates for their earnings. She also joined with other Western senators to win $4 billion to combat the region’s drought.

It was on the energy and environment side that compromise was most evident between progressives and Manchin, a champion of fossil fuels and his state’s coal industry.

Clean energy would be fostered with tax credits for buying electric vehicles and manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines. There would be home energy rebates, funds for constructing factories building clean energy technology and money to promote climate-friendly farm practices and reduce pollution in minority communities.

Manchin won billions to help power plants lower carbon emissions plus language requiring more government auctions for oil drilling on federal land and waters. Party leaders also promised to push separate legislation this fall to accelerate permits for energy projects, which Manchin wants to include a nearly completed natural gas pipeline in his state.

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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announces run for Congress

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Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate under Senator John McCain, is running for Congress, shaking up an already unpredictable race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat. Palin, who shared the news on her Twitter account Friday, now joins a field of at least 40 candidates seeking to fill the seat that had been held for 49 years by the late-U.S. Rep. Don Young. 

“Public service is a calling, and I would be honored to represent the men and women of Alaska in Congress, just as Rep. Young did for 49 years,” she wrote in a statement announcing her candidacy. “I realize that i have very big shoes to fill, and I plan to honor Rep. Young’s legacy by offering myself up in the name of service to the state he loved and fought for, because I share that passion for Alaska and the United States of America.”

Palin filed paperwork Friday, which was being processed by the Division of Elections, said Tiffany Montemayor, a division spokesperson.

The field includes current and former state legislators and a North Pole city council member named Santa Claus. The deadline to file was 5 p.m. Friday.

Young, who served as the dean of the House, died on March 19 at the age of 88. He had served in the House for nearly half a century. 

Others who filed Friday include Republican state Sen. Josh Revak; Democratic state Rep. Adam Wool; independent Al Gross, an orthopedic surgeon who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2020; and Andrew Halcro, a former Republican state lawmaker who is running as an independent. They join a field that includes Republican Nick Begich, who had positioned himself as a challenger to Young; Democrat Christopher Constant, an Anchorage Assembly member; and John Coghill, a Republican former state lawmaker.

Palin is a former Alaska governor and the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. She has kept a low profile in Alaska politics since leaving office in 2009, before her term as governor ended.

Revak, who previously worked for Young’s office and was a statewide co-chair for Young’s reelection bid, said he felt a “strong calling and a duty” to step forward.

He said he was “heartbroken” by the filing timeline, coinciding with a period he said should be focused on remembering Young.

Young lied in state at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. A public memorial was held in the Washington, D.C.-area on Wednesday and a public memorial is planned in Anchorage on Saturday.

A special election to fill his vacant seat will be held this summer, with a primary slated for June 11 and a special general election on August 16, the same date as Alaska’s regularly scheduled primaries. 

The winner of the special election will finish the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in January 2023.

In her announcement Friday, Palin said the country “is at a tipping point,” and spoke of the need to address “out-of-control inflation, empty shelves, and gas prices that are among the highest in the world.”

“I’m in this race to win it and join the fight for freedom alongside other patriots willing to sacrifice all to save our country,” Palin said. 

Aaron Navarro contributed reporting.



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House January 6 committee refers contempt charges for Navarro and Scavino

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The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol unanimously voted Monday night to recommend that former Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino be held in contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with subpoenas. 

Committee chair Bennie Thompson acknowledged in a statement on Monday that Navarro, a former trade adviser, and Scavino, a former deputy chief of staff and member of the White House communications team, “aren’t household names,” but he said they are “so important to our investigation.” 

“In short: these two men played key roles in the ex-President’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” Thompson said. “The Select Committee subpoenaed them for records and testimony to learn more about their roles and what they knew.”

Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro

AP/Andrew Harnik, AP/Alex Brandon


Thompson said that Scavino “strung us along for months before making it clear that he believes he’s above the law.” Navarro, Thompson said, shared “relevant details on TV and podcasts in his own book,” but he “stonewalled us.” 

In a statement Monday night, Navarro said the select committee’s “witch hunt is predicated on the ridiculous legal premise that Joe Biden can waive Donald Trump’s Executive Privilege. The Supreme Court will say otherwise when the time comes – as it surely must – and the DOJ knows such nonsense would gut Executive Privilege and the critical role it plays in effective presidential decision making.”

Vice chair Liz Cheney, one of the two Republicans on the committee, said Monday that the committee has “already defeated President Trump’s effort to hide certain White House records behind a shield of Executive Privilege,” and “that same conclusion should apply to Mr. Scavino and Mr. Navarro.”

“In the coming months, our committee will convene a series of hearings,” Cheney said. “The American people will hear from our fellow citizens who demonstrated fidelity to our constitution and the rule of law – who refused to bow to President Trump’s pressure.”

Speaking after the vote, committee member Jamie Raskin said to “please spare us the nonsense talk about executive privilege rejected now by every court that has looked at it. This is America, and there’s no executive privilege here for presidents, much less trade advisors, to plot coups and organize insurrections against the people’s government and the people’s constitution, and then to cover up the evidence of their crimes. The courts aren’t buying it and neither are we. “

Monday’s vote comes after the committee released a 34-page report recommending the contempt charges on Sunday night. 

“The contempt report published last night gets into the weeds on this, but broadly, Mr. Scavino and Mr. Navarro are making similar excuse,” Thompson said. “They’re claiming that the information we want from them is shielded by executive privilege.”

The committee referred the matter to the full Democratic-controlled House, which will decide to schedule a vote on whether to turn the matter over to the Justice Department.

 Navarro, along with other Trump allies who have been subpoenaed, have said they cannot overrule Trump invoking executive privilege. President Biden, meanwhile, has rejected the claims of executive privilege. 

“My position remains this is not my executive privilege to waive, and the committee should negotiate this matter with President Trump,” Navarro said in a statement. “If he waives the privilege, I will be happy to comply; but I see no effort by the committee to clarify this matter with President Trump, which is bad faith and bad law.”

Scavino, who the committee noted had dual roles as a White House official and a key promoter of Trump’s stolen election theory on social media, was first subpoenaed in September to provide documents to the committee and sit for depositions, along with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon and Pentagon chief of staff Kashyap Patel. Sunday night’s report said Scavino was first issued a subpoena at Mar-a-Lago, but the committee had to issue a second subpoena in October after the first one was challenged. 

The committee is seeking information from Scavino because, according to Sunday’s report, he was “reportedly present for meetings in November 2020 where then-President Trump consulted with outside advisors about ways to challenge the results of the 2020 election” and because they have “reason to believe that Mr. Scavino was with then-President Trump on January 5 and January 6 and was party to conversations regarding plans to challenge, disrupt, or impede the official congressional proceedings.” 

The committee said Trump and Scavino spoke multiple times by phone on January 6 and alleged that Scavino might have had advance warning of the violence because he monitored websites where the assault was discussed. The report detailed Scavino’s activities on The_Donald subreddit and TheDonald.win. 

In rejecting Scavino’s claims of executive privilege, Mr. Biden said it “does not extend to discussions relating to non-governmental business or among private citizens.”

The committee also rejected Navarro’s claim of executive privilege, writing in the report that “the Select Committee does not seek documents or testimony from Mr. Navarro related to his official duties as a Federal official. None of the official responsibilities of Mr. Navarro’s positions included advising President Trump about the 2020 Presidential election or the roles and responsibilities of Congress and the Vice President during the January 6, 2021, joint session of Congress.”

The committee in February issued a subpoena to Navarro, who served as a trade adviser to Trump, alleging he developed plans to change the outcome of the election. Rather than reply to the subpoena, the report said Navarro, “predicted that his interactions with the Select Committee would be judged by the ‘Supreme Court, where this case is headed.'”

According to Sunday’s report, Navarro worked with “Bannon and others to develop and implement a plan to delay Congress’ certification and ultimately change the outcome of the November 2020 Presidential election.”

The report also said that Navarro detailed in his November 2021 book “In Trump Time” this plan, called the “Green Bay Sweep.” Navarro called this “the last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from Democrats’ jaws of deceit.” In a later interview about the book, Navarro said Trump was “on board with the strategy.” 

The January 6 Select Committee has already formally recommended the U.S. House formally refer Bannon and Meadows for contempt of Congress prosecution. The House, by a majority vote that included nine Republicans, voted in favor of the referral.  

Weeks later, the Justice Department charged Bannon, who turned himself in to authorities and pleaded not guilty.  He is scheduled for trial in late July in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  His defense attorney told CBS News the defense expects to file a motion to dismiss the charge on April 8. 

The Justice Department has not commented on the nature or results of its review of possible criminal charges against Meadows.   The U.S. House, with a majority vote that included only two Republicans, approved the referral of Meadows for possible charges in mid-December.  Three months later, no case has yet been filed.  

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans on the committee, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning that he is “not confident that Meadows has handed over everything at all.”

“He was cooperating with us for a little bit, and then, in an attempt to make Donald Trump happy, he stops cooperating,” Kinzinger said. “We gave him plenty of space to come back and resume that. He has not.”

Last week, CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post obtained texts between Meadows and Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, that the House January 6 committee also possesses. In the texts, Ginni Thomas pushed Meadows to overturn the 2020 election. 

Nikole Killion, Ellis Kim, Sara Cook and Zak Hudak contributed to this report.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Torches Paul Gosar After Cringey Anime Clip of Him Killing Her

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has issued a withering response to Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) after he posted a cringeworthy anime clip that showed him killing her. Gosar’s clip depicted himself as the hero of Japanese anime series Attack on Titan, and it showed him slaying Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden with swords. The clip was flagged as “hateful conduct” by Twitter, and now Ocasio-Cortez has responded after landing in Scotland for the COP26 conference. “While I was en route to Glasgow, a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me,” she wrote. The congresswoman predicted Gosar will face “no consequences” for his post, and added: “This dude is a just a collection of wet toothpicks anyway. White supremacy is for extremely fragile people & sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior because deep down he knows he couldn’t open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself.” Gosar’s digital director, Jessica Lycos, defended the video, writing in a statement: “Everyone needs to relax.”

Read it at The Washington Post



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Congressman Ron Wright dies after contracting COVID-19

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Texas Republican Representative Ron Wright died Sunday, about two weeks after contracting COVID-19. The first sitting member of Congress to die of the virus, Wright had also been undergoing treatment for cancer for years, according to a statement released by his office.

“Congressman Ron Wright passed away peacefully at the age of 67 on February 7, 2021. His wife Susan was by his side and he is now in the presence of their Lord and Savior,” the statement said. 

For the past two weeks, he and his wife, Susan Wright, were in Baylor Hospital in Dallas after both were diagnosed with COVID-19. On January 21, Wright released a statement announcing he had tested positive after he had come into contact a week earlier with someone who had the disease.

When he announced his diagnosis, Wright quarantined and described his symptoms as “minor.” “I feel okay and will continue working for the people of the 6th District from home this week,” he said.

Representative Ron Wright seen November 15, 2018. 

Carolyn Kaster / AP


Wright’s office said he had been keeping a “rigorous work schedule” on the House floor and at home during his cancer treatment and said he had in particular fought for “individual freedom, Texas values, and above all, the lives of the unborn.”

Wright first won the 6th District seat in 2018 after longtime Congressman Joe Barton retired. The district encompasses Arlington, part of Fort Worth, and areas south of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Although Wright is the first sitting member of Congress to die after contracting the virus, Congressman-elect Luke Letlow also died at the end of December, days before he was supposed to take office. He was 41.

Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.

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