The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol released a 154-page summary of its findings Monday, the culmination of nearly 18 months of work. The committee says it expects to release the full report later this week, as well as a number of transcripts from witness depositions.
NBC News reports, Jan. 6 committee approves criminal referrals against Trump for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election:
The House Jan. 6 committee voted Monday to recommend the Justice Department pursue a batch of criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for his role in an effort to overturn the 2020 election and the fomenting of a deadly mob at the Capitol.
The select committee also took aim at Trump’s top allies — on and off Capitol Hill — who worked with the 45th president to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory and illegitimately keep Trump in power.
“We understand the gravity of each and every referral we are making today, just as we understand the magnitude of the crime against democracy that we describe in our report,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who led the Jan. 6 subcommittee that examined referrals. “But we have gone where the facts and the law lead us, and inescapably they lead us here.”
The Jan. 6 panel also issued a criminal referral to the Department of Justice for conservative attorney John Eastman, who the committee says was the architect of the scheme to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject states’ electoral votes on Jan. 6 and have fake electors submitted to the Congress instead.
Raskin said there may be others worthy of prosecution and there may be other statutes that Trump violated, noting the Justice Department will be able to form “a far more complete picture” through its own ongoing investigation.
Trump was the first president in American history to be impeached twice. Now, he is also the first president ever to be formally referred by Congress for potential criminal prosecution.
“This committee is nearing the end of its work. But as a country, we remain in strange and uncharted waters. We’ve never had a President of the United States stir up a violent attempt to block the transfer of power,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. “If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again.”
This marks the first time in history that a congressional committee has recommended that DOJ launch a criminal investigation into a former American president.
The Jan. 6 committee is urging DOJ to consider a number of charges against Trump, including conspiracy to defraud the federal government; obstruction of an official proceeding, in this case Congress’ certification of electoral votes; conspiracy to make a false statement; and inciting or assisting those in an insurrection.
The criminal referrals do not carry any legal weight but represent a symbolic rebuke of Trump, who remains the most influential Republican in the country and has launched another bid for president in 2024.
Jack Smith, the independent special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is already investigating Trump on numerous fronts, including for his role in the Jan. 6 riot.
The committee used its final hearing to summarize the key investigatory threads from its nine previous hearings and to stitch them together into a case against Trump.
“At the heart of our republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power… Every President in our history has accepted this peaceful transfer of power — except one,” the committee’s co-Chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said of Trump.
Cheney said that “among the most shameful” findings of the committee was that Trump sat in the White House watching the violence unfold on TV on Jan. 6, but did nothing, even as advisors and allies begged him to call off the rioters.
“This was an utter moral failure,” Cheney said of Trump’s inaction. “No man who would behave that way, at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office.”
Witnesses, most of them Republicans, testified to the Jan. 6 panel that Trump and his inner circle had furiously worked to sow doubt about Joe Biden’s legitimate election victory.
They testified that Trump launched a multi-pronged campaign to pressure state officials, senior Justice Department officials and Vice President Mike Pence to help overturn the election.
They said Trump directed a mob of thousands of his supporters to march on the Capitol to disrupt lawmakers from certifying the results of the election.
And the witnesses, which included many former Trump White House aides, said he refused to call off his supporters as they brutally assaulted police officers and stormed the halls of Congress while chanting threats to “hang Mike Pence” and target lawmakers by name.
The report represents the culmination of an 18-month congressional investigation that included more than 100 subpoenas, interviews with more than 1,200 witnesses and the collection of hundreds of thousands of documents. Most transcripts from those depositions and voluntary interviews, as well as other written and video evidence, will also be shared with the public.
“They conducted the business with the seriousness it deserves, the fact that it’s about our national security, it’s about our democracy,” said outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was targeted during the attack and who created the Jan. 6 committee.
Committee Chair Thompson said his report will be different in one significant way: The committee first will release it digitally, which will allow the panel to link to evidence that can provide the public with greater context.
“Whereas other reports have just been a bunch of pages, we think the digital part will add another dimension to it,” Thompson told reporters.
During the hearing, Thompson also spoke directly to the American people, saying they will now decide on accountability for Trump’s actions as he seeks the White House once again.
“The future of our democracy rests in your hands,” the Jan. 6 Committee chairman said during the hearing. “It’s up to the people of this country to decide who deserves the public trust. Who will put fidelity to the constitution and democracy above all else. Who will abide by the rule of law, no matter the outcome.”
The Summary confirms 4 Republicans, including McCarthy, referred to Ethics Committee:
The committee announced during Monday’s final meeting that it was referring four Republican members of Congress to the House Ethics Committee for defying subpoenas from the committee earlier this year.
But Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., did not name those members during the meeting. Instead, those names were made public in a summary of the committee’s final report.
They are: House Minority Leader and potential incoming Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif; Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is expected to be the next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; and Scott Perry, R-Pa.
“Despite the Select Committee’s repeated attempts to obtain information from these Members and the issuance of subpoenas, each has refused to cooperate and failed to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena,” according to the report summary. “Accordingly, the Select Committee is referring their failure to comply with the subpoenas issued to them to the Ethics Committee for further action. To be clear, this referral is only for failure to comply with lawfully issued subpoenas.“
Committee report outlines Trump’s plan to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6
The executive summary says the committee believes Trump wanted to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to personally lead the effort to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
“The committee’s principal concern was that the president actually intended to participate personally in the January 6th efforts at the Capitol, leading the attempt to overturn the election either from inside the House chamber, from a stage outside the Capitol, or otherwise,” the summary said.
“The committee regarded those facts as important because they are relevant to President Trump’s intent on January 6th,” the summary continued. “There is no question from all the evidence assembled that President Trump did have that intent.”
From the 154-page summary (pp. 29-30):
In the course of investigating this series of facts, the Select Committee subpoenaed Dr. John Eastman’s emails from his employer, Chapman University.212 Dr. Eastman sued to prevent Chapman from producing the emails, arguing that the emails were attorney-client privileged. Federal District Court Judge David Carter reviewed Dr. Eastman’s emails in camera to determine, among other things, whether the emails had to be produced because they likely furthered a crime committed by one of Dr. Eastman’s clients or by Dr. Eastman himself. In addition to reviewing the emails themselves, Judge Carter reviewed substantial additional evidence presented by the Select Committee and by Dr. Eastman.
After reciting a series of factual findings regarding President Trump’s multi-part plan to overturn the election, Judge Carter concluded that President Trump likely violated two criminal statutes: 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c) (corruptly obstructing, impeding or influencing Congress’s official proceeding to count electoral votes); and 18 U.S.C. § 371 (conspiring to defraud the United States). The Court also concluded that John Eastman likely violated at least one of these criminal laws. As to §1512(c), Judge Carter explained:
Taken together, this evidence demonstrates that President Trump likely knew the electoral count plan had no factual justification.
The plan not only lacked factual basis but also legal justification. . . .
The illegality of the plan was obvious. Our nation was founded on the peaceful transition of power, epitomized by George Washington laying down his sword to make way for democratic elections. Ignoring this history, President Trump vigorously campaigned for the Vice President to single-handedly determine the results of the 2020 election. . . . Every American – and certainly the President of the United States – knows that in a democracy, leaders are elected, not installed. With a plan this “BOLD,” President Trump knowingly tried to subvert this fundamental principle. Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.
As to 18 U.S.C. § 371, Judge Carter identified evidence demonstrating that both President Trump and John Eastman knew their electoral count plan was illegal, and knew it could not “survive judicial scrutiny” in any of its iterations:
Dr. Eastman himself repeatedly recognized that his plan had no legal support. . . . Dr. Eastman likely acted deceitfully and dishonestly each time he pushed an outcome-driven plan that he knew was unsupported by the law.
Finally, Judge Carter concluded:
Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower – it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation’s government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process.
Judge Luttig reached similar conclusions during his live hearing testimony: “I have written, as you said, Chairman Thompson, that, today, almost 2 years after that fateful day in January 2021, that, still, Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy.”
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Politico reports, “The Jan. 6 committee’s big reveal hasn’t happened yet”, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/19/jan-6-committees-reveal-hasnt-happened-yet-00074639
(So chill the hell out and be patient!)
The Jan. 6 select committee’s last — and most important — act won’t happen in a hearing room.
It will come when one of the panel’s last, beleaguered staffers hits the “publish” button on its collection of evidence compiled over 18 months of investigation, material that still remains almost entirely secret.
The committee is sitting on a stockpile of nearly 1,200 witness interview transcripts and reams of hard-won documents about Donald Trump’s attempt to derail the peaceful transfer of power. While the select panel’s nine members gathered on Monday to refer evidence of Trump’s potential crimes to the Justice Department, that raw information — not the showmanship of a final in-person public meeting — will tell the story the committee has labored to piece together.
The 160-page executive summary, which precedes a final panel report set for release as soon as Wednesday, hints at the extraordinary range of documents the committee collected. It references at least 30 “productions” of documents from various witnesses and agencies, including White House visitor logs, Secret Service radio frequencies and the Department of Labor, where then-Secretary Eugene Scalia produced a Jan. 8, 2021, memo seeking to call a Cabinet meeting to discuss the transfer of power.
“The select committee intends to make public the bulk of its nonsensitive records before the end of the year,” the panel’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), said Monday. Thompson has stressed that the taxpayer-funded investigation’s materials should be made available to the public: “These transcripts and documents will allow the American people to see the evidence we have gathered and continue to explore the information that has led us to our conclusions.”
[Y]et crucial questions remain about which evidence the panel will treat as off-limits to the public — including whether it will post hundreds of hours of video interviews alongside its transcripts. Thompson has also emphasized that transcripts will be redacted to exclude private information and law enforcement or national security-related details. And some witnesses who requested anonymity would receive it, Thompson has said.
Call records, with the exception of ones that the committee has found relevant to the probe, would likely remain secret as well, according to the chair.
Even so, the panel’s introductory materials gave tantalizing clues about what’s to come. The committee’s executive summary referenced just over 80 of the panel’s interviews and documents collected from 34 agencies or witnesses; among them, Christoffer Guldbrandsen, a documentarian who captured footage of Trump ally Roger Stone, and Bernard Kerik, who advised Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in his bid to collect evidence to challenge the 2020 results.
The summary also reflects voluminous contacts among key players in Trump’s alleged plot that were not previously known but could be of interest to federal prosecutors. For example, the document describes numerous contacts that then-DOJ officials Jeffrey Clark and Ken Klukowski had with Trump campaign attorney John Eastman in the closing days of 2020 and into early 2021.
In addition, the summary casts doubt on the testimony of some select panel witnesses — like former Secret Service and Trump White House aide Tony Ornato and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who the committee said were not as forthcoming as others who spoke to it.
During her testimony, McEnany had disputed the allegation that Trump was resistant to calling off the mob, but the summary noted that her former deputy Sarah Matthews had told the panel otherwise. Ornato, who played a potentially key role as a witness to an alleged altercation between Trump and his security detail on Jan. 6, drew similar scrutiny after telling the committee he could not recall relaying the account of the altercation despite others’ testimony to the contrary.
“The Committee is skeptical of Ornato’s account,” the panel added in a footnote.
The summary nods to even more material the Jan. 6 panel has kept under wraps for months.
The committee repeatedly noted that as it closes its doors, DOJ and local prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga., appear to have surpassed its ability to collect information that witnesses sought to safeguard — either by pleading the Fifth Amendment or invoking other privileges that lawmakers simply could not overcome.
“The Committee recognizes that the Department of Justice and other prosecutorial authorities may be in a position to utilize investigative tools, including search warrants and grand juries, superior to the means the Committee has for obtaining relevant information and testimony,” the panel concluded.
On Friday, a federal judge unsealed a secret grand jury opinion that underscored this point: DOJ obtained thousands of emails from key Trump allies like Clark, Klukowski and Eastman, months earlier than had been previously known.
See, “Judge unseals new details of contacts among Rep. Perry, Trump-connected attorneys”, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/16/trump-jan-6-perry-00074379
The committee, which has largely resisted sharing its evidence with the Justice Department to this point, also noted that it had delivered some of its evidence to federal prosecutors already. The committee also encouraged prosecutors to issue grand jury subpoenas for Republican lawmakers who refused to comply with its summonses, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who the committee said had key evidence of Trump’s mindset during and after the attack on the Capitol.
And there’s more than prosecutors watching the panel’s work.
“The entire nation knows who is responsible for that day,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday. “Beyond that, I don’t have any immediate observations.”
So the January 6th committee is making NO referrals for actions taken by anybody on January 6th, which is what I predicted in my response to your December 6th post where you claimed that the committee would make criminal referrals. As you may recall, you quoted a source as saying that referrals “will be focused on the main organizers and leaders of the attacks.” DID NOT HAPPEN BECAUSE IT WAS ALL COMMITTEE BS. Eat crow AZ BlueMeanie!!!
You obviously have not read the summary report. Donald Trump and John Eastman are referred to DOJ. The committee lays out its evidence for the other co-conspirators and leaves it to the DOJ to make the call on prosecution, which is its job. You are an unwell troll.
There it is, Johnny “Government Checks” Kavanagh goes for the homo/transphobic pronoun joke.
Fake conservatives like Kavanagh only have the one joke and they just repeat it over and over.
Lame.
Now we know that racist POS John “Government Feeds Me” Kavanagh hasn’t read the summary, along with the Mueller Report, the US Constitution, or the Bible. Lots of stuff.
It could be a reading comprehension problem, based on what an idiot the guy is.
I will admit that I often repeat myself as well, like how I repeat over and over about donating to RaicesTexasDotOrg in Honor of Arizona Welfare Queen John Kavanagh.
Raices provides free or low cost legal help to immigrants.
Hooray!
Let us not judge John “Shameless Mooch” Kavanagh for the one over-used joke.
No, let’s judge him for the horrible things he has done to families and children and for being a racist POS.
Spare me the back peddling spin. If the politically biased commission can’t gather enough information to recommend prosecution after all their efforts, do you really think the DOJ will? And if the DOJ is not recommending prosecution of all these insurrectionists because they are leaving “…it to the DOJ to make the call on prosecution, which is its job,” then why refer Trump and Eastman for prosecution, if prosecution referrals are not the commission’s job? Good work contradicting yourself in such a short answer.
John “Is My Government Check Here Yet” Kavanagh is doing that thing where he makes up rules for other people to follow then declares victory when they don’t follow the rules that he made up so he could declare victory.
It’s a pretty sweet system for pretending to win debates.
He’s also a fan of the old Soviet era “whataboutism” and the GQP’s old standby’s, deflect and distract.
And of course he’s happy to lie when he thinks he can get away with it.
I know, pathetic, right?
We can’t help John “Entitled Much” Kavanagh, there’s no treatment for being bad a trolling, yet, but we can help the good people at RaicesTexasDotOrg.
Raices provides free or low cost legal help to immigrants.
Hooray!
Remember to donate In Honor of Arizona’s Biggest Hypocrite John Kavanagh.
I’m sure he’d donate too, but you know, living government check to government check, a girls got to watch her finances.
Johnny Johnny Johnny. You really believe the Jan 6 Commission was politically biased? With two Republicans serving on it? Let’s see…the Democrats proposed an independent bi-partisan commission, the Republicans loudly said NO! So the House Majority Leader formed the Jan 6 Commission in the House and allowed the Minority Leader to submit Commission candidates. The submitted candidates were either implicated in the January 6 riots or were determined to disrupt/derail the Commission hearings so Majority Leader Pelosi (rightfully so) rejected them. Then rather than submit better candidates Minority Leader McCarthy decided to boycott the Commission entirely.
Since you steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the reality of the situation I’m going to be generous and confer upon you that most exalted conservative status…that of victim. You make it astoundingly clear that in accepting whatever nonsense Fox News, OAN, etc., spoon feeds you that you’re an obvious victim of Right Wing Media Brain Rot. In your case probably terminally incurable.
Wileybud with his facts and such. 🙂
Yep, McCarthy shot himself in the foot after Pelosi gave him everything he asked for on the J6 Select, she just wouldn’t allow two of the worst people on the committee.
So Galaxy Brain McCarthy bailed on it and gave it all to the Dems and the last two sane GOP’ers.
The MAGA cult out-thunk itself yet again while Pelosi ran rings around them.
And all the while, secretly, most of the GOP is hoping this takes down T4ump, because he’s a losing loser who keeps losing.
Anyway, John “Government Cheese” Kavanagh whining about partisanship is hilarious. 🙂