The Jan. 6 panel's 18-month probe led to criminal referrals against Trump. Read the summary
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol on Monday released an executive summary of its highly-anticipated final report, presenting a full account of its findings on former President Donald Trump's efforts to maintain power.
The 154-page summary provides the basis for the committee's recommendation that the Justice Department prosecute a former president for the first time in U.S. history.
"We understand the gravity of each and every referral we are making today, just as we understand the magnitude of the crime against democracy that we described in our report," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., one of the committee members. "But we have gone where the facts and the law lead us, and inescapably they lead us here."
The committee's actions:
The committee voted 9-0 to refer four criminal referrals against Trump to the Justice Department: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and "incite," "assist" or "aid and comfort" an insurrection.
The panel also said there could be enough evidence for criminal charges against other Trump allies, singling out attorneys John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark and Kenneth Chesebro.
The panel also is recommending the House Ethics Committee investigate four Republican lawmakers – including Kevin McCarthy, the potential next House speaker – for defying the committee's subpoenas.
More: Live updates: Jan. 6 committee holds final hearing to weigh potential crimes in Capitol attack
Next steps: Jan. 6 committee to recommend DOJ pursue criminal charges, but hasn't yet decided on names
Read the report here:
The committee’s final report made 17 findings about the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, including that Trump plotted to overturn the 2020 results despite knowing he’d lost, sent an angry and armed mob to the Capitol and failed to respond to the violence as it unfolded on television.
Read the full executive summary here. The full report is expected to be released later this week.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the committee, said Trump should not ever hold elected office of any kind again. “No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office," she said.
How we got here:
Throughout nine public hearings, the committee made the case that Trump oversaw a "sprawling, multistep conspiracy" to overturn the election and prevent the transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden.
In October, the House panel took the extraordinary step of formally subpoenaing Trump, kicking off a legal battle with the former president who has denounced the committee's investigation as political.
Though the committee's work has been widely lauded by the left, it has drawn ire from Republicans, who dismissed the panel's work as partisan writ large. With the GOP set to retake the House in January after winning a majority, the committee's end is imminent.
More on the Jan. 6 committee
Pressure campaigns, predictable violence: What we learned from all eight Jan. 6 hearings
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: January 6 report: Read executive summary of findings on Trump, attack