OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A member of the House January 6 Committee said on Sunday that the panel had made a big move towards a decision over whether to send criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
In an interview Sunday on CBS, Rep. Adam Schiff said that a subcommittee was set to meet later in the day as part of the process regarding a potential decision ahead of the committee’s release of a final report towards the end of the month and just days before the new Republican majority will take control of the chamber.
“We are as a subcommittee, several of us that were charged with making the recommendation about referrals, [are] going to be making that recommendation to full committee today,” Schiff told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan. “We will be releasing a report, I think around the 21st, that will include whatever decision we’ve made on referrals.”
“We’re all certainly in agreement, there’s evidence of criminality here,” he added without elaborating.
WATCH:
"We're all in agreement, there's evidence of criminality here"
House Jan 6 Cmte member Adam Schiff (D-CA) tells @FaceTheNation a subcommittee will make a recommendation today to the House Jan 6 panel about criminal referrals.. with expected announcement publicly on Dec 21 pic.twitter.com/0G4fF1KYWx
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) December 11, 2022
The Daily Wire noted:
Members of the House select committee have been investigating the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, and efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election. former President Donald Trump and his supporters have been heavily critical of the inquiry and the committee’s two Republican members, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).
Recent reports have indicated that at least four people could be the subject of criminal referrals, including Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer John Eastman, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
However, Schiff’s suggestion that there could be criminal referrals runs afoul of what the committee’s own chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), said about the issue earlier this year.
Thompson was asked by a reporter if the committee would be sending criminal referrals for the former president or others and he responded by saying the committee does not have that authority.
“No, you know, we’re going to tell the facts. If the Department of Justice looks at it and assumes that there’s something that needs further review, I’m sure they’ll do it,” he said.
He was asked again and explained “No, that’s not our job. Our job is to look at the facts and circumstances around January 6, what caused it, and make recommendations after that.”
Still, Thompson appeared to change course earlier this month, saying on Tuesday that the panel has not yet narrowed down the individuals who may be referred to the DOJ. When a reporter asked Thompson if he believed any witnesses perjured themselves when they testified before the committee, he said, “that’s part of the discussion.”
In January, Thompson appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Dana Bash to provide an update on the panel’s investigation into the Jan. 6 riot. During the segment, Bash asked the committee chair if Trump’s alleged “lack of action on Jan. 6 may actually warrant a criminal referral.”
“The only thing I can say is highly unusual for any in charge of anything to watch what’s going on and do nothing,” Thompson responded.
“Is it criminal?” Bash broke in.
Thompson replied: “We don’t know. We [are] in the process of trying to get all the information.”
He noted further: “But I can say if there’s anything that we come upon as a committee that we think would warrant a referral to the Department of Justice, we’ll do that. That’s our oath as members of Congress. So it’s not just that. It’s any of the other things we’re looking at, if there’s any confidence on the part of our committee that something criminal we believe has occurred, we’ll make the referral.”
Asked if the panel “learned from witness testimony more about what [Trump] was or wasn’t doing,” Thompson then responded:
Yes, we have. We have significant testimony that leads us to believe that the White House had been told to do something.
We want to verify all of it so that when we produce our report and when we have the hearings, the public will have an opportunity to see for themselves.
But Dana, to be honest with you, what occurred Jan. 6 played out in full view of the American public and the world and we want to make sure that that never ever happens again, so we need to get it right, get all the facts and circumstances and that’s what the committee’s body of work is about, doing it at this point.
"We have significant testimony that leads us to believe that the White House had been told to do something. We want to verify all of it," says Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/G2d9wWaZ87
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) January 2, 2022
