Well, here it comes. The moment that the Democratic Party has been working toward for six years or more.
With their existence now coming to an end as the new Congress begins to take over, the January 6th select committee appears to have one final, bombastic, and potentially dangerous action left to commit to the historical record: The unprecedented act of referring a former President to the DOJ for criminal charges.
The Jan. 6 select committee is preparing to unveil its most comprehensive case yet that Donald Trump attempted to subvert the transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden — first by pressuring allies at every level of government and then with the aid of a violent mob.
The panel plans to release the first components of its final report on Monday following an 18-month probe that featured explosive depositions from members of Trump’s West Wing, battles that reached the Supreme Court and access to some of the most sensitive papers held by Trump’s White House.
If there was any doubt about where this barely-bipartisan committee was headed, it has now been erased.
“I think that the evidence is there that Donald Trump committed criminal offenses in connection with his efforts to overturn the election. And viewing it as a former prosecutor, I think there’s sufficient evidence to charge the president,” panel member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” though he declined to comment on specific charges.
The panel is expected to urge the Justice Department to pursue at least three criminal charges against the former president: insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States government. The referrals to the department are included in a sub-panel report that the full committee is expected to approve on Monday.
The move could usher in a new element of conflict in the 2024 election as well, with Trump having already announced his impending campaign for the White House.
