Jan. 6 Committee Refers Criminal Charges for Donald Trump
(CNN) -- The January 6 committee used its final public meeting Monday to summarize its 17-month investigation with a simple closing statement: All roads lead to Donald Trump.Members focused on how the former president's direct involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election makes him responsible for the violence that unfolded at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and unfit to hold future office.The committee laid out the case for both the public and the Justice Department that there's evidence to pursue criminal charges against Trump on multiple criminal statutes, including obstructing an official proceeding, defrauding the United States, making false statements and assisting or aiding an insurrection.The committee released an executive summary of its report on Monday, and it plans to release the full report on Wednesday, as well as transcripts of committee interviews.Here are takeaways from the committee's final public meeting:Committee refers Trump to DOJFor months, the committee went back-and-forth over whether it would refer Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.On Monday, the committee didn't equivocate.The committee referred Trump to DOJ on at least four criminal charges, while saying in its executive summary it had evidence of possible charges of conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.In practice, the referral is effectively a symbolic measure.
It does not require the Justice Department to act, and regardless, Attorney General Merrick Garland has already appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to take on two investigations related to Trump, including the January 6 investigation.But the formal criminal referrals and the unveiling of its report this week.
