Jan. 6 committee releases final report, issues criminal referrals against Trump

The House select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol held its final public meeting on Monday, announcing unprecedented criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the insurrection.

The committee formally recommended that the Justice Department charge Trump with four counts stemming from his monthslong effort to stay in power after his election defeat: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and efforts to incite, assist, or aid or comfort an insurrection.

The bipartisan panel also released part of a sprawling final report stemming from its 18-month probe.

The release of the report and announcement of referrals announced by the House committee come just weeks before Republicans, who have criticized the probe, take control of the chamber.

Over the course of nearly a dozen public hearings, the panel presented new evidence surrounding Trump’s failed efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election. It showed that Trump and his allies pressured state officials to send fake electors to Washington, D.C., browbeat former Vice President Mike Pence and that the then-president remained walled away in the White House, glued to the television as thousands of his supporters and right-wing militia members ransacked the Capitol.

“Knowing that violence was underway at the Capitol, and despite his duty to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed, Donald Trump refused repeated requests over a multiple hour period that he instruct his violent supporters to disperse and leave the Capitol," the committee's report read, "and instead watched the violent attack unfold on television.”