A House select committee found enough evidence to make four criminal referrals against Donald Trump after an 18-month investigation.
A target letter special counsel Jack Smith has sent to former President Donald Trump signals he may soon be hit with another indictment — this time with respect to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
But a year ago, much was already alleged about Trump’s role in attempts to overturn the 2020 election in a separate investigation — an 18-month probe by a House select committee formed to get to the bottom of what happened following the election, and on and around Jan. 6.
The lawmakers identified Trump as the “central cause” of the attack and related efforts and concluded after interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses, issuing many subpoenas and holding nine public hearings there was enough evidence to make criminal referrals against Trump to the Justice Department.
The four charges recommended were obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and inciting or assisting an insurrection.
Trump long lambasted the Jan. 6 panel as a partisan witch hunt and denied any wrongdoing. After members recommended charges, the Trump campaign said the committee’s actions made “a mockery of our democracy” and Trump himself said it only strengthened him among his supporters. When the committee’s final report was published, Trump asserted they found no proof he “intended or wanted violence at our Capitol” because “the claim is baseless and a monstrous lie.”
The former president has similarly attacked Smith’s probe as the product of an allegedly “politically weaponized” federal government seeking to interfere with the 2024 election. After receiving the target letter, Trump said in a campaign email to supporters he did “nothing wrong” and was “completely innocent.”
The House select committee, bipartisan but not supported by most Republicans, said its work was intended to be “a roadmap to justice” for agencies and institutions responsible for upholding the rule of law, with some members decrying Trump as unfit to hold office ever again.
It’s not known whether any of the committee’s criminal referrals are playing a role in what the special counsel is presenting to the grand jury investigating Jan. 6 — but here are some highlights of what lawmakers said they uncovered about Jan. 6 and Trump’s efforts to stop a peaceful transfer of power.Trump pushed false allegations of fraud: Jan. 6 committee
Various administration officials and White House staffers, including former Attorney General Bill Barr and Trump’s daughter Ivanka, testified they informed Trump on numerous occasions he’d lost the election and there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
