The House Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up its investigation of the violent 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Lawmakers are expected to cap one of the most exhaustive congressional probes in memory with an extraordinary recommendation that the Justice Department should consider criminal charges against former President Trump, the Associated Press reports. At a final meeting on Monday, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are poised to recommend criminal charges against Trump and potentially against associates and staff who helped him launch a multifaceted pressure campaign to try overturning the 2020 election. While a criminal referral is mostly symbolic, with the Justice Department ultimately deciding whether to prosecute Trump or others, it is a decisive end to a probe that had an almost singular focus from the start.
“I think the president has violated multiple criminal laws and I think you have to be treated like any other American who breaks the law, and that is you have to be prosecuted,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a panel member, told CNN. The panel, which will dissolve on Jan. 3 with the Republican-led House, has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, held 10 well-watched public hearings and collected more than a million documents since it launched in July 2021. As it has gathered the massive trove of evidence, the members have become emboldened in declaring that Trump is to blame for the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters almost two years ago. After beating their way past police, injuring many of them, the Jan. 6 rioters stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of President Biden’s win, echoing Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud and sending lawmakers and others running for their lives.