Schiff: Jan. 6 Committee Will Consider Criminal Referrals at Sunday Meeting
The Jan. 6 committee is meeting Sunday and will discuss a subcommittee’s recommendations regarding criminal referrals, committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said. The committee is winding down its investigation in anticipation of the GOP regaining the House majority next month.
“We are as a subcommittee, several of us that were charged with making the recommendations about referrals, going to be making that recommendation to the full committee today,” Schiff told CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on Sunday. The meeting is taking place at 1 p.m. Eastern, according to CNN. The committee’s full report, including any criminal referrals, is slated to be released on Dec. 21.
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On the Jan. 6 committee's potential criminal referrals it may issue to the DOJ, Rep. Adam Schiff says it would be "an important statement, not a political one."
"I think it's an important decision in its own right…one that the department ought to give due consideration to." pic.twitter.com/KNZc6vMhVx— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 11, 2022
Some of the potential targets for criminal referral include former President Donald Trump and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. CNN has also reported that Trump attorneys John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani are being considered as well.
“We’re looking at: What is the quantum of evidence that we have against individuals? What is the impact of making a referral? Are we going to create some suggestion by referring some that [for] others there wasn’t insufficient evidence when we don’t know, for example, what evidence is in the possession of the Justice Department?” Schiff said. “So if we do make referrals, we want to be very careful about how we do them. We’re all certainly in agreement that there is evidence of criminality here, and we want to make sure the Justice Department is aware of that.”
Schiff also said the Jan. 6 committee has been “far out ahead” of the Justice Department’s ongoing investigations, and by making criminal referrals, the committee can send a message that “Congress examining an attack on itself is willing to report criminality.”
In November, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said “the evidence is there” to refer Trump for criminal charges. On Tuesday, Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters that the committee would be making criminal referrals, but he refrained from naming anyone specifically.
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