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.