Washington: A select committee of the US Congress Monday voted to refer to the Justice Department four criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
The decision in this regard was taken as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
The four charges recommended against Trump include impediment of an official proceeding of the Congress, conspiracy to deceive the US, rebellion as the January 6 attack has been called and fabricating a fake list of electors, who would officially confirm Biden’s election in the concluding stage of the presidential election.
The US Congress select committee also referred aides of the former President to the Justice Department. Those referred include Mark Meadows, his final Chief of Staff, and lawyers Rudolph W. Giuliani, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark and Kenneth Chesebro.
Moreover, the select committee has named four members of the House for an ethics investigation.
Criminal referrals such as these actually have no legal weight and the Justice Department is not bound to take them up. However, they could be considered given that the Justice Department is already investigating the January 6 attack – headed by a special counsel, Jack Smith. Smith has added a new sense of urgency.
The bipartisan select committee of the US House of Representatives that took the vote in its final public hearing also released an executive summary of their report based on their 18-month-long investigation, which included several high-profile public Congressional hearings, including several Trump’s aides.
“That evidence has led to an overriding and straightforward conclusion: the central cause of January 6 was one-man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed,” the report states, adding, “None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him.”
It is worth mentioning here that the criminal reference against Trump is unprecedented and added to the already sullied White House record of the former President, which includes two impeachments – one while in office, and the other after leaving – and a host of criminal and civil cases he is currently embroiled in.
