The House Select Jan. 6 Committee will take up criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump on at least two charges: obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to a source familiar with the committee's discussions but not authorized to speak publicly on the plans.
The referrals will be voted on Monday, during what's very likely to be the last public meeting of the panel before it sunsets at the end of the month.
The referrals will come in the form of a letter from the committee to the Justice Department making its case for prosecution. Referrals do not carry any legal weight or compel the Justice Department to act.
The referrals are part of a larger list of recommendations from the committee's subpanel of lawyers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. Other members include Democratic Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Adam Schiff of California and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. The subpanel was created in October to address criminal referrals and other recommendations.
Monday's meeting punctuates a nearly two-year investigation into what led to the violent attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden won.
The committee's final report, which Chairman Bennie Thompson previously told NPR could be roughly 1,000 pages long, could be released as soon as Monday. It's expected the report's appendices and transcripts of over 1,000 witness interviews will be released on Wednesday.
In addition to criminal referrals, the panel may issue other categories of referrals — to the Federal Election Commission, the House Ethics Committee, and bar associations to discipline attorneys.
The Justice Department is separately conducting its own extensive probe into the events of Jan. 6 with a special counsel.
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