January 6 Committee holds final meeting Monday, takes action against Trump, allies

Legal experts say that the House January 6 Committee's criminal referrals of former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for his involvement in the 2021 Capitol protests are "theater" and will likely be ignored by the DOJ, and they could possibly have a counterproductive effect should the DOJ decide to bring charges.

The Jan. 6 panel held what is expected to be their final meeting Monday and voted unanimously to issue criminal referrals to the DOJ on Trump for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the federal government, making a false statement, and inciting, assisting or aiding and comforting an insurrection.

The committee’s unprecedented criminal referral holds no official legal weight, and a final determination in whether to pursue the charges will be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Read more here.

The special House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol released a 154-page executive summary on Monday detailing its impetus for referring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department. 

"What Donald Trump proceeded to do after the 2020 election is something no president had done before in our country," said Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. "In a staggering betrayal of his oath, Donald Trump attempted a plan that led to an attack on a pillar of our democracy."

The panel, which is made up of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, argued during the committee's final meeting that Trump's conduct before and after Jan. 6 was "unlawful."

Read more here.

The House January 6 Committee on Monday referred lawyer John Eastman to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution for his alleged role in planning to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president.

"Our Committee had the opportunity last Spring to present much of our evidence to a federal judge... The judge concluded that both former President Donald Trump and John Eastman likely violated two federal criminal statutes," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-M.D., said Monday.

The committee issued a preliminary report Monday that outlined the findings of their 18-month long investigation into the events on January 6, 2021.

"In the days before January 6th, Eastman was warned repeatedly that his plan was illegal and ‘completely crazy,’ and would ‘cause riots in the streets.’ Nonetheless, Eastman continued to assist President Trump’s pressure campaign in public and in private, including in meetings with the Vice President and in his own speech at the Ellipse on January 6th,” the report states.

The recommend charges against Eastman include obstruction of Congressional proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The January 6 panel referred four top Republicans to the House Ethics Committee on Monday for defying a congressional subpoena.

The panel referred House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as well as GOP Reps. Andy Biggs, Jim Jordan, and Scott Perry to the ethics committee. All four lawmakers were subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 panel, but refused to comply.

The House Ethics Committee is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, meaning the referrals are unlikely to lead to an investigation.

“This is just another partisan and political stunt made by a Select Committee that knowingly altered evidence, blocked minority representation on a Committee for the first time in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives, and failed to respond to Mr. Jordan’s numerous letters and concerns surrounding the politicization and legitimacy of the Committee’s work,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Jim Jordan.

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Four law enforcement officers that were either inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. 2021 or helped respond to the violence attended the committee's meeting on Monday.

U.S. Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell sat alongside Washington Metropolitan Police officers Michael Fanon and Daniel Hodges in the packed hearing room. The four law enforcement previously testified before the committee about the events that took place on Jan. 6.

Rep. Liz Cheney argued at Monday's hearing that former President Donald Trump's conduct in the days leading up to and after the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol made him unfit to serve in public office.

"No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again," said Cheney, a Wyoming Republican. "He is unfit for any office."

Cheney, who serves as vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, lost her bid for re-election earlier this year in a GOP primary after being targeted by Trump.

The House Jan. 6 committee is slated to release all of its nonsensitive documents to the public before Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January.

"The select committee intends to make public the bulk of its non sensitive records before the end of the year," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the panel. "These transcripts and documents will allow the American people to see for themselves the body of evidence we gathered and continue to explore the information that has led us to our conclusions."

The committee is set to disband at the end of this Congress unless lawmakers vote to reauthorize it next year. Republicans, who will control the House next Congress, have pledged to release their own report outlining the intelligence and security failures that occurred during January 6, 2021.

The House Jan. 6 committee will hold what's expected to be its final meeting Monday, when the panel is expected to take action against former President Trump and his allies. 

The committee, which subpoenaed Trump in October, will present its final findings after a nearly 18-month probe. It is also expected to issue several criminal referrals to the Justice Department, but all eyes are on whether Trump himself will be included in the action.

"No one is really certain" what will happen, a senior GOP aide told Fox News Digital. "They subpoenaed Trump that doesn't seem to have led to much."

It remains unclear if the former president, who launched his 2024 White House bid last month, has cooperated with the panel's request for information.

At Monday's meeting, the committee's members, seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, will each present a portion of their findings. Some will also summarize the investigation, others will focus on the alleged ties between Trump staffers and extremist groups that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

While some evidence presented is likely to be new, few believe the committee has anything close to a smoking gun implicating Trump.

Read more by Fox News' Haris Alic: January 6 Committee holds final meeting, expected to take action against Trump, allies