Jan. 6th Committee Will Hand Down Criminal Referrals, Says Chairman
Ginni Thomas
There are likely a lot of sweaty palms down in Mar-A-Lago today. The chair of the House Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection announced that they will be making criminal referrals to the Justice Department as they wrap up their probe.
That means folks in Donald Trump world could be facing jail time, if the justice department decides to pursue the charges. Committee Chair Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) declined to provide the answer to the question on all of our minds, namely, who exactly is on their recommendation list.
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“At this point, there’ll be a separate document coming from me to DOJ,” Thompson told reporters at the Hill, according to the AP. The committee spokesman clarified to the AP that specifics about the decision will be coming out in the next few days.
There’s a number of people who could make their way onto the list. The obvious candidate for potential charges is Donald Trump. The former President has had his fingerprints all over the January 6th insurrection and subsequent efforts to overturn the election results.
Then there’s more peripheral folks like Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarance Thomas. In September, she finally went before the January 6th committee for her involvement in the uprising. And, it seems like every other day, the Washington Post or the New York Times discovers a new way Ginni was involved in trying to overturn the election.
Regardless of who ends up on the committee’s proverbial chopping block nothing will happen without the Justice Department’s approval. Congress has already referred seven members of Trump’s inner circle to the Justice Department. But so far, only one member of the Trump Jan. 6th squad, Steven Bannon, has been indicted.
Still, with Trump facing legal pressure from multiple angles, it’ll be worth seeing if the January 6th committee decides to give the Justice Department some additional ammunition against him.
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