Live updates: Jan. 6 committee votes to issue criminal referrals against Trump | CNN Politics (2024)

A video of former President Donald Trump is shown on a screen, as the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its final meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Monday, December 19. (

The Jan. 6 committee used itsfinal public meetingMonday to summarize its 17-month investigation with a simple closing statement: All roads lead toDonald Trump.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

The committee refers Trump to the DOJ

For months, the committee went back-and-forth over whether it would refer Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. On Monday, the committee didn’t equivocate.

The committee referred Trump to DOJ on at least four criminal charges, while saying in its executive summary, released after the meeting, it had evidence of possible charges of conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.

In practice, the referral is effectively a symbolic measure. It does not require the Justice Department to act, and regardless, Attorney General Merrick Garland has already appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to take on two investigations related to Trump, including the Jan. 6 investigation.

But the formal criminal referrals and the unveiling of its report this week underscore how much the Jan. 6 committee dug up and revealed Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the lead-up to Jan. 6. Now the ball is in the Justice Department’s court.

All roads lead to Trump

Committee members repeatedly pointed to Trump’s personal involvement in nearly every part of the broader plot to overturn the 2020 election and focused squarely on his role in the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6.

Monday’s presentation was a compelling closing salvo for the committee, which said Trump sought to break “the foundation of American democracy.” Members stressed that Trump knew the election was not stolen but continued to push baseless claims about widespread voter fraud in an effort to upend Joe Biden’s legitimate victory.

Visually reinforcing their argument

The committee relied once again on video — an effective and memorable tool the panel has used throughout its hearings with closed-door witness testimony and harrowing scenes from the violent attack on the Capitol, to make an its case against Trump.

The montage went step-by-step through Trump’s efforts to block his election loss, showed how his attacks upended the lives of election workers and played body-cam footage of officers attacked by rioters.

A bipartisan, if one-sided, endeavor

Though GOP lawmakers have called the committee partisan, the panel is, in fact, bipartisan.

Two Republicans who volunteered to join the committee: Rep. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. They both brought GOP staff members along with them who worked for the committee.

To be sure, Cheney and Kinzinger are outliers in their caucus because they are anti-Trump. And that is the core of Trump’s critiques of the committee — that it stacked with Trump haters. Still, even if they oppose Trump, Cheney and Kinzinger are still deeply conservative Republicans.

No matter what Trump and his allies say, Democrats will forever be able to accurately assert that the panel’s findings, conclusions, its final report and its criminal referrals are bipartisan.

Read more takeaways here

After the Jan. 6 committee’s final public session Monday, some people named in the summary of the final report, as well as some of those who were referred by the committee, are reacting to the conclusion to the nearly year and a half investigation.

The committee approved a criminal referral for three charges against former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department. The former president responded on Truth Social, saying that the committee’s actions would make “him stronger” and indicated that the referrals today were part of a larger attempt to stop him from running for President in 2024.

Trump’s base has had a history of galvanizing behind him when Trump is in legal peril, including when he Mar-a-Lago home was searched by the FBI. As Trump’s political support has seemingly waned in recent weeks, it is unclear that these criminal referrals will have the same effect.

The committee said it was also advancing criminal referrals for attorney John Eastman and “others” to the Justice Department for investigation and potential prosecution.

There is evidence to justify an Eastman referral to DOJ on obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, the committee said Monday.Raskin said that the committee believed the conduct of others may also warrant Justice Department investigation and prosecution, but those referrals were not identifiedon Monday.

Eastman decried the committee’s “Stalinist” tactics said he hadnotyet received a subpoena in the DOJ criminal probe now being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

He said that he had a “whole lot of information” to defend himself if federal prosecutors decided to bring a case against him. He also said that a federal judge “got it wrong” when the judge concluded that a handful of Eastman’s emails showed evidence of a crime.

Other referrals: The House select committee is referring four members of Congress to the House’s Ethics Committee after those members did not comply with the subpoenas from the panel.

An executive summary released after the meeting identifies the four Republicans as GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

Russell Dye, a spokesperson for Rep. Jim Jordan, called the referral a “partisan and political stunt” by the committee. In a statement, he claimed the panel “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.”

CNN has also reached out to the other lawmakers.

Others named in the summary: In addition, several others are named as being participants in the conspiracies the committee is linking to Trump, including then-DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark and Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as Trump-tied lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Rudy Giuliani.

Ted Goodman, communications and political advisor to Rudy Giuliani, a former lawyer for Donald Trump and former mayor of New York City, said in a statement: “Mayor Rudy Giuliani wasn’t drinking election night and we have multiple in-person witnesses on the record to back this up. Anyone saying otherwise is either mistaken or shamefully lying about Mayor Giuliani — an honest, good American who has dedicated his life to serving others and doing the right thing.”

The House select committee said in an executive summary of its final report that on election night in 2020, “the only advisor present who supported President Trump’s inclination to declare victory was Rudolph Giuliani, who appeared to be inebriated,” citing testimony the panel received.

Senate Republicans are divided over the Jan. 6 investigation — and also over Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s comments saying the “entire nation” blames former President Donald Trump for the attack.

Asked if he agrees, Sen. Rick Scott said, “I haven’t seen a poll like that.”

While some like Sen. Mitt Romney agreed with McConnell, others refused to go that far.

Sen. John Cornyn, a member of McConnell’s leadership team, said the investigation was not credible. Asked if he agreed with McConnell’s statement, Cornyn wouldn’t say, but added, “I don’t dispute that people saw it with their own eyes.”

Sen. Josh Hawley declined to comment on McConnell and dismissed the committee’s referral to the Justice Department.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville also answered “no” when asked if he agreed with McConnell, adding of the entire investigation that “this committee is self-serving. We’ve got a lot more problems than rehashing this whole thing.”

“There’s a lot of people responsible,” Tuberville said.

Sen. Kevin Cramer said, “Idon’t know who he said was responsible but to me, the people that were responsible for January 6 were the people that illegally came into the building, people that stormed over barriers and broke through windows and doors and illegally trespassed in the United States Capitol.”

“I think it’s a cop out to blame somebody other than the actual perpetrators of crimes, generally. So I don’t like to take criminals off the hook too easily,” Cramer added.

House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol conducts its final meeting in the Cannon House Office Building on Monday, December. 19.

The end is near — at least for the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The panel held its final public session Monday where it voted on its final report and approved a criminal referral for several charges against former President Donald Trump.

So here’s what happens next: Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said the full report will come out Wednesday. This will be a historical document that will be studied for generations — never before has a sitting president tried to steal a second term.

Additional “transcripts and documents” will be released before the end of the year, Thompson said.

The sheer volume of this material can’t be overstated. The panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, likely generating tens of thousands of pages of transcripts. Many of these interviews were filmed, which means the panel has hundreds of hours of footage that it might release very soon.

These upcoming releases will provide fodder to Trump’s critics. But it will also grant a key demand from some of Trump’s allies — that the panel disclose the full context of its interviews. Up until this point, the panel has been very selective about which snippets of witness interviews got played at public hearings.

The current Congress ends on January 3, 2023, and that’s when the committee will cease to exist. But the Justice Department investigation, overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland, continues.

Of the committee’s nine members, four won’t be returning to Congress. Besides Republican vice-chair Rep. Liz Cheney and Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida is retiring, and Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia was one of the handful of House Democratic incumbents who lost their seats in the 2022 midterms last month.

For months, the Jan. 6 committee went back-and-forth over whether it would refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. On Monday, the committee didn’t equivocate.

The committee referred Trump to the DOJ on at least four criminal charges, including:

The panel said in its executive summary that it had evidence of possible charges of conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.

So what is a criminal referral? A referral represents a recommendation that the Justice Department investigate and look at charging the individuals in question. The House committee’s final report – to be released Wednesday – will provide justification from the panel’s investigation for recommending the charges.

In practice, the referral is effectively a symbolic measure. It does not require the Justice Department to act, and regardless, Attorney General Merrick Garland has already appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to take on two investigations related to Trump, including the Jan. 6 investigation.

But the formal criminal referrals and the unveiling of its report this week underscore how much the Jan. 6 committee dug up and revealed Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the lead-up to Jan. 6. Now the ball is in the Justice Department’s court.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said during Monday’s meeting that he has “every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a road map to justice, and that the agencies and institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we’ve provided to aid in their work.”

After the panel’s meeting, Thompson told CNN that the evidence that supports the panel’s decision to refer Trump to the DOJ is “clear,” adding that he is “convinced” that the department will ultimately charge Trump.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed reporting to this post.

Raskintalks to reporters on Monday, December 19.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who serves on the subcommittee of the Jan. 6 select committee responsible for presenting criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, laid out how panel members arrived at the decisions presented during Monday’s final public session.

Asked about process offenses, such as witness tampering or perjury, Raskin said “as evidence is assembled about that, I hope that those will be charged as well. You cannot suborn perjury, you cannot obstruct justice, you cannot interfere with a congressional proceeding.” However, Raskin did not specify who these potential charges related to in the panel’s investigation.

In terms of unanswered questions left by the committee, Raskin was asked if the panel ever solved the situation with the pipe bombs on Jan. 6 and said, “I don’t believe there have been any updates since we first looked int to. Those are unsolved crimes.”

House select committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney arrives for the final hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday, December 19.

Audio of former President Donald Trump plays during the House select committee session on December 19.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House select committee, speaks during the last meeting on Monday.

From second left to right, former US Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and USCP Officer Harry Dunn listen to the final public session of the House select committee.

The US Capitol is seen on Monday, December 19.

Check out photos from the last Jan. 6 hearings here.

Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin speak to reporters as they leave the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol final meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Monday, December 19.

Jan. 6 committee members, Reps. Jamie Raskin and Adam Schiff, explained that more associates of former President Donald Trump were not directly referred to the Department of Justice because the committee wanted to focus on those with “abundant evidence” against them.

Raskin noted that the DOJ will receive the full report and can decide if anyone else discussed merits further investigation.

“We wanted to proceed in such a way that we could all feel certain that these were people where evidence exists that they engaged in criminal offenses against our country,” he added.

Schiff said, “The long and the short of it is we possess evidence that up until this release, the Justice Department may not have, they possess evidence that we don’t have, and the cumulative impact of all that evidence will hopefully lead to justice for those that have broken the law here.”

Raskin promised that they would cooperate with the Justice Department “quickly,” while Schiff added that the committee expects evidence will start to be made available to both the DOJ and the public starting Wednesday.

Asked to explain why those four House Republicans were referred to House Ethics in particular, Schiff pointed out that these four failed to comply with a congressional subpoena, which is easier to prove.

The House select committee, including chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, center, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, hold their final meeting on Monday.

After extensive investigation, the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol held its final public meeting Monday where they voted on their final report and approved a series of criminal referrals — including against former President Donald Trump and others in his orbit.

The final report is expected to be released publicly Wednesday.

Here are the key things that happened at the committee’s last public session:

From left to right, former US Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and USCP Officer Harry Dunn listen to the final public session of the House select committee.

As the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 riot held its last public meeting, the room was packed.

Law enforcement officers who testified at the panel’s first public hearing last July about the violence they experienced defending the US Capitol on Jan. 6 sat in the front row, as they have for every public event the committee has had.

Those officers include: US Capitol Police (USCP) officer Harry Dunn, former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, former USCP Sgt.Aquilino Gonelland Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges.

Fanone sat in the audience as the panel replayed his testimony about being attacked as the riot unfolded.

A number of committee staff and investigators —and even former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock, who has publicly supported the panel’s work — were in the audience as well.

The meeting took place in the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Caucus Room which was recently renamed to honor House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who stepping down as speaker at the end of the this Congress.

In previous hearings, it was typical to see a committee staffer sitting at the dais with the members. But for today’s meeting, it was just the nine committee members at the dais, each taking turns speaking.

The White House said the Jan. 6 committee has been doing “important bipartisan work,” but declined to offer any new response after the committee held its final public meeting on Monday.

Jean-Pierre said the committee had “been doing important bipartisan work to get to the truth of what happened on that very day so we can make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”

Pressed for a response on referrals to the House Ethics Committee for four Republican members of Congress, Jean-Pierre declined to give a direct response from the White House.

“You would have to ask those, those very Republicans… to speak for their own actions here and have them explain themselves,” she said.

Former President Donald Trump arrives on stage to announce his plans to run for president during an event at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15.

Jan. 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompsonsaid the evidence that supports the panel’s decision to refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for several criminal charges is “clear,” adding that he is “convinced” that the DOJ will ultimately charge Trump.

“The committee looked at it longand hard, and from my vantagepoint, we couldn’t do anythingexcept make the referral,” Thompson told CNN after Monday’s meeting, acknowledging the unprecedented nature of the referral.

“It was clear in the evaluationof the evidence uncovered by ourcommittee that those actionstaken by the president… formerPresident Trump, clearly createda problem for this country,” he added.

The committee also voted to approve its final report which will be released to the public Wednesday. That report will contain most of the evidence from the 17-month long investigation — including full transcripts from more than 1,000 interviews.

“We think it’simportant for the JusticeDepartment to look at that bodyof information that we puttogether,” he said.

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A video showing Kellyanne Conway is played during the House select committeemeeting on Monday.

Trump “minimized the seriousness of the attack” in the days following the riot, Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Elaine Luria said, specifically citing testimony that Trump’s former senior adviser Kellyanne Conway gave to the committee.

Asked to describe her conversation with Trump the day after the riot, Conway, said she didn’t think it was very long. “I don’t think it was very long. I just said that was just a terrible day.”

Trump, Conway said, responded to her saying, “These people are upset. They’re very upset.”

CNN previously reported that Trump similarly described rioters as being “upset” during a heated phone call he had withHouse Minority Leader Kevin McCarthywhile the insurrection was underway, claiming therioters cared more about the election results than the California Republican did.

“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy.

Trump’s comment set off what GOP lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told Trump the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked, “Who the f–k do you think you are talking to?” according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.

The Jan. 6 committee brought some focus on theconsequences of former President Donald Trump’s lies for “regular people,” CNN’s Audie Cornish said after the committee’s final public meeting, including the “election workers whosuffered because they were caught up in a vortex of liesand the conspiracy theories.”

“Even the insurrectionistswho have gone to say, ‘I wentbecause the president told me to go,’” she added.

“I think it wasvaluable for the committee toacknowledge and underscore thatin its final meeting,” Cornish added.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021,attack on the US Capitolhas concluded that former PresidentDonald Trumpwas ultimately responsible for the insurrection, laying out for the public and the Justice Department a trove of evidence for why he should be prosecuted for multiple crimes.

The summary describes in extensive detail how Trump tried to overpower, pressure and cajole anyone who wasn’t willing to help him overturn his election defeat — while knowing that many of his schemes were unlawful. His relentless arm-twisting included election administrators in key states, senior Justice Department leaders, state lawmakers, and others. The report even suggests possible witness tampering with the committee’s investigation.

The committee repeatedly uses forceful language to describe Trump’s intent: that he “purposely disseminated false allegations of fraud” in order to aid his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and to successfully solicit about $250 million in political contributions. “These false claims provoked his supporters to violence on January 6th.”

The full report, based on 1,000-plus interviews, documents collected including emails, texts, phone records and a year and a half of investigation by the nine-member bipartisan committee, will be released Wednesday, along with along with transcripts and other materials collected in the investigation.

Here are some key things from the report summary:

Committee referring Trump and others to DOJ: The House committee lays out a number of criminal statutes it believes were violated in the plots to stave off Trump’s defeat and says there’s evidence for criminal referrals to the Justice Department for Trump, Trump attorney John Eastman and “others.”

The report summary says there’s evidence to pursue Trump on multiple crimes, including obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make false statements, assisting or aiding an insurrection, conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.

Trump’s false victory was “premeditated”: The committee outlines 17 findings from its investigation that underpin its reasoning for criminal referrals, including that Trump knew the fraud allegations he was pushing were false and continued to amplify them anyway.

Several members of Congress being referred to House Ethics Committee: The select committee is referring several Republican lawmakers who refused to cooperate with the investigation to the House Ethics Committee.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona, could all face possible sanctions for their refusal to comply with committee subpoenas.

The Jan. 6 committee voted to approve its final report and criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump Monday.

While the full report won’t be available to the public until Wednesday, the panel released an executive summary following its meeting.

The summary describes in extensive detail how Trump tried to overpower, pressure and cajole anyone who wasn’t willing to help him overturn his election defeat – while knowing that many of his schemes were unlawful.

Read the executive summary here:

The House select committee is referring four members of Congress to the House’s Ethics Committee after those members did not comply with the subpoenas from the panel.

Rep. Jamie Raskin,who announced the referrals at Monday’s public meeting, said they were being referred for “appropriate sanction by the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply with lawful subpoenas.”

An executive summary released after the meeting identifies the four Republicans as: GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

CNN has reached out to all four GOP members who were referred to House Ethics for defying the committee’s subpoenas.

“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 US 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,” Russell Dye, spokesperson for Rep. Jim Jordan, told CNN.

The House Jan. 6 committee voted Monday to approve its historic final committee report and refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department on multiple criminal charges for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

The committee voted unanimously at the end of its final public meeting Monday to adopt the report and criminal referrals for Trump and others. The final report won’t be released publicly until Wednesday.

The committee referred Trump to the Justice Department for obstructing an official proceeding, defrauding the US, making false statements and giving aid or comfort to an insurrection, the panel said Monday.

The committee said at Monday’s hearing that there is sufficient evidence to refer Trump on those four potential crimes.

The committee said it was also advancing criminal referrals for attorney John Eastman and “others” to the Justice Department for investigation and potential prosecution.

There is evidence to justify an Eastman referral to DOJ on obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, the committee said Monday.Raskin said that the committee believed the conduct of others may also warrant Justice Department investigation and prosecution, but those referrals were not identifiedon Monday.

“Our report describes in detail the actions of numerous co-conspirators who agreed with, and participated in, Trump’s plan to impair, obstruct and defeat the certification of President Biden’s electoral victory,” Raskin said.

“That said, the subcommittee does not attempt to determine all of the potential participants in this conspiracy, as our understanding of the role of many individuals may be incomplete even today because they refused to answer our questions. We trust that the Department of Justice will be able to form a more complete picture through its investigation.”

Trump supporters participate in a rally in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.

In the lead up to Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump ignored warnings from advisorsaboutthe potential for violence and rejected any suggestion that he should explicitly tell supporters to be peaceful, Rep. Stephanie Murphy said Monday.

Murphy pointed to a text message exchange provided to the committee by Hope Hicks,Trump’sformercommunications director. In the exchange, Hicks and then White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidleydiscussed getting Trump to tweet out a message to his supporters. Gidley texted Hicks that Trump “really should tweet something about Being NON-violent.”

Hicks responded that she had already “suggested it several times” without success.

“Mr. Herschmann said that he had made the same recommendation directly to the President and that he had refused,” Hicks said in her interview with the committee, a video of which was played Monday.

Despite his staff’s warnings, Murphy said, Trump took to the stage on Jan. 6, 2021, and encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell,” and sent them marching to the Capitol building.

The House Select Committee announced at Monday’s meeting it was recommending criminal referrals to the Justice Department as part of its investigation into Jan. 6.

“Ours is not a system of justice where foot soldiers go to jail and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass,” said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who sits on the committee.

The committee chose to advance referrals because of “where the gravity of the specific offense, the severity of its actual harm, and the centrality of the offender to the overall design of the unlawful scheme to overthrow the election, compel us to speak,” he added.

As a starting point, the committee relied on opinions issued by a federal judge in California, who determined emails to and from Trump attorney John Eastman showed evidence of a crime. That legal ruling allowed the committee to pierce the privileges that typically would have shielded them from view.

“The judge concluded that both former President Donald Trump and John Eastman likely violated two federal criminal statutes,” Raskin said.

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Former President Donald Trump announces he is running for president during a speech at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15.

The Jan. 6 committee is outlining criminal referralit plans to make against former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department and other officials.

CNN previously reported the committee would refer at least three criminal charges against Trump to the DOJ, including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chair of the committee, told CNN last week that a subcommittee of members would make recommendations to the full committee about various referrals.

The full committee is now expected to vote on adopting the subcommittee’s recommendations.

Remember: A referral represents a recommendation that the Justice Department investigate and look at charging the individuals in question. The House committee’s final report – to be released Wednesday – will provide justification from the panel’s investigation for recommending the charges.

But any move by the Jan. 6 panel to approve a referral would be largely symbolic because a referral by no means obligates federal prosecutors to bring such a case. Withthe federal investigationnow being led by special counsel Jack Smith, it appears Justice Department investigators are already looking at much of the conduct that the select committee has highlighted.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren speaks during the House select committee meeting on Monday.

House Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren revealed during Monday’s public meeting that an unnamed lawyer appeared to have attempted to shape the testimony of one witness in a way that could help Donald Trump.

Lofgren noted a lawyer suggested that the witness not share some memories during her testimony to the committee, that she couldn’t learn who was paying for her lawyer, and that Trump-allied entities offered to keep her under their wing as her testimony neared.

As it became clear what the witness would say, Lofgren added, the job offers evaporated.

Lofgren didn’t name the lawyer or the female witness, and it’s not clear if all of the examples are about one witness.

It’s not unusual or illegal for lawyers to take money from motivated backers to pay for witnesses to be represented. But lawyers must follow strict ethics guidelines, governed by their state bars and enforced by the courts. The House select committee previously shared their concerns about potential witness influence with the Justice Department.

Hope Hicks, a former aide to former President Donald Trump, is displayed on a screen during the House select committee hearing on Monday.

In a new video clip played by the House Jan. 6 committee, Hope Hicks, who previously served as a top aide to former President Donald Trump, referenced the baseless claims of election fraud and said: “I was becoming increasingly concerned that … we were damaging his legacy.”

Trump “said something along the lines of, you know, ‘Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning,’” Hicks said in the clip.

The committee played the clip after Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren said Trump was repeatedly told there was no evidence to back up his false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and the panel “has obtained testimony from new witnesses who have come forward to tell us about their conversations with ex-President Trump on this topic.”

“Donald Trump knowingly and corruptly repeated election fraud lies, which incited his supporters to violence on Jan. 6. He continues to repeat his meritless claim that the election was stolen even today, and continues to erode our most cherished and shared belief in free and fair elections,” Lofgren later continued.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, center, speaks during the last hearing of the House select committee on Monday.

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans on the the Jan. 6 committee, accused former president Donald Trump of trying to abuse the powers of the Justice Department so he could stay in office.

Kinzinger described how Trump wanted top Justice Department officials to publicly endorse his false claims about massive voter fraud. As part of the plan, Trump wanted them to “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” according to committee testimony.

A retiring Republican, Kinzinger called out his fellow GOP lawmakers. He also specifically name-dropped Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, who was involved with some of Trump’s scheming at the Justice Department.

When then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen refused to go along with Trump’s plan, Trump almost fired him and replaced him with Jeffrey Clark, a Trump loyalist at DOJ who embraced his election lies.

“It was only after the threat of mass resignations that President Trump rescinded his offer to Mr. Clark,” Kinzinger said.

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Members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol sit on Monday beneath a video of former President Donald Trump talking about the results of the 2020 election.

Former President Donald Trump “oversaw” an effort to obtain and transmit false Electoral College certificates, tying him directly to a core tenet of the broader plot to upend Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in key swing states,the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection said Monday.

The panel highlighted Trump’s personal involvement in thelegally dubious effort to put forward fake slates of electorsin seven states he lost, arguing that the evidence shows he actively worked to “transmit false Electoral College ballots to Congress and the National Archives.”

Those certificates, which surfaced publicly earlier this year, helped spark criminal investigations into the Trump team’s attempt to subvert theElectoralCollege.

As part of its closing message Monday, the select committee emphasized that these “false ballots” were created despite concerns among Trump’s election lawyers and White House counsel that doing so may be “unlawful.”

“In spite of these concerns, and the concerns of individuals in the White House Counsel’s Office, President Trump and others proceeded with this plan,” he added.

The committee has evidence that shows these “intentionally false” Electoral College certificates were “transmitted to multiple officers of the federal government,” according to Schiff.

Evidence collected by the committee also shows these documents “were intended to interfere with the proper conduct of the joint session, where the existence of so-called ‘competing slates’ of electors would serve as a pretext for legitimate electoral votes to be rejected,” he added.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the House select committee, said the panel “found that Mr. Trump raised hundreds of millions of dollars with false representations made to his online donors. The proceeds from this fundraising, we have learned, have been used in ways that we believe are concerning.”

“In particular, the committee has learned some of those funds were used to hire lawyers,” the California Democrat said.

One such lawyer told a witness that the individual “could, in certain circ*mstances, tell the committee that she didn’t recall facts when she actually did recall them,”Lofgren added, but did not name the witness or the lawyer.

The same lawyer, Lofgren said, declined to answer questions from that witness about who was paying for the lawyer’s representation.

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Rep. Liz Cheney speaks during the meeting on Monday.

Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, issued a scathing rebuke of former President Donald Trump during her opening remarks on Monday, saying he is unfit for office based on his actions regarding Jan. 6 insurrection.

“At the beginning of our investigation, we understood that tens of millions of Americans had been persuaded byPresident Trump that the 2020election was stolen by overwhelming fraud.And we also knew this was flatlyfalse. We knew that dozens of stateand federal judges hadaddressed and resolved allmanner of allegations about theelection,” Cheney said. “Our legal system functioned as itshould.But our president would notaccept the outcome.Among the most shameful of thiscommittee’s findings was thatPresident Trump sat in thedining room off the Oval Officewatching the violent riot atthe Capitol on television.”

She went on to describe how Trump was unmoved by “urgent pleas” from people around him to “issue apublic statement instructinghis supporters to disperse andleave the Capitol,” even as rioters attacked law enforcement officials and halted the electoral count.

“In addition to being unlawfulas described in our report,this was an utter moralfailure, and a clear dereliction ofduty,” Cheney added.

House select committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney speaks during the public meeting on Monday, December 19.

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on the US Capitol, said the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power is “at the heart of our Republic.”

She added: “Trumbull called this ‘oneof the highest moral lessonsever given the world.’With this noble act, GeorgeWashington established theindispensable example of thepeace transfer of power in our nation.”

She traced this orderly transfer of power through every president of the United States until former President Donald Trump refused his constitutional duty.

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Jan. 6: The Story So Far (Published 2022)

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Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House select committee, speaks during their final meeting on Monday.

Jan. 6 committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said that the future of democracy rests on the hands of the American public during his opening statement at Monday’s public meeting.

He also thanked the American public for tuning into the committee’s hearings and said that he hoped that the evidence presented lived up to their expectations.

“I’m grateful to the millions ofyou who followed this committee’s work.I hope we lived up to ourcommitment to present the facts— and let the facts speak for themselves,” Thompson said.

He continued, “Let me say in closing, the womenand men seated around me on thisdais are public servants in themost genuine sense.They put aside politician andpartisanship, to ensure thesuccess of this committee, andproviding answers to theAmerican people.”

Thompson specifically thanked Republican Rep. Liz Cheney for her participation. “I especially want to thank andacknowledge our vice chair, whohas become a true partner inthis bipartisan effort, Ms.Cheney of Wyoming.”

House select committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson opens the last public session on Monday.

Jan. 6 committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompsonsaid the panel’s findings show that former President Donald Trump was responsible for the insurrection at the US Capitol and that there is still “reckoning” left to do, nearly two years later.

“We remain in strange and uncharted waters,” Thompson said, as the committee comes to the close.

In opening statements to the committee’s final public session, Thompson said Americans show faith in elected officials that they will abide by laws and uphold elected results.

“If the faith is broken, so is our democracy,” he said. “Donald Trump broke that faith. He lost the 2020 election and knew it, but he chose to try to stay in office through a multi-part scheme to overturn the results and block the transfer of power.”

“In the end, he summoned a mob to Washington,” he said, adding that their findings show Trump knew they were “armed and angry.”

Thompson said the committee intends to make the bulk of its results public in the form of its final report, expected to be released Wednesday.

Along with adopting its final report on Monday,the committee is also expected to announce it will refer at least three criminal charges againstTrump to the Justice Department, including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government, CNN previouslyreported.

“So, today, beyond our findings,we will also show that evidencewe’ve gathered points to furtheraction beyond the power of thiscommittee, or the Congress, tohelp ensureaccountabilityunderlaw,” he added.

“Accountabilitythat can only befound in the criminal justicesystem.We have every confidence thatthe work of this committee willhelp provide a roadmap tojustice,” he said.

Thompson didn’t announce the criminal referrals in his openingstatementbut said that the panel has “every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a road map to justice, and that the agencies and institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we’ve provided to aid in their work.”

CNN’s Jeremy Herb contributed reporting to this post.

House select committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson told CNN that the Jan. 6 committee will send the criminal referrals to the Justice Department “shortly after we take care of business today.”

There are “no plans” as of yet to meet with special counsel Jack Smith, he added.

The final House select committee session begins on Monday.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has begun its final public meeting.

The panel is expected to announcecriminal referralsto the Justice Department and Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, has said the panel will approve its final report at the meeting. It won’t be made public until Wednesday. Members of the committee have promised to release the report before the end of the year since Republicans are expected to dissolve the panel when they take over the House in January.

The meeting — which, unlike previous gatherings of the committee, is not a hearing with witnesses — will include a presentation and cover the names of people facing criminal and other referrals, as will as the basis for those referrals, Thompson said last week.

CNN previously reportedthe committee will refer at least three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump to the DOJ, including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government. The panel has also weighed criminal referrals for a number ofTrump’s closest allies.

The committee has been investigating the events on and leading up to the insurrection since the panel was formed in July 2021.

The Jan. 6 committee’s expected referrals to the Justice Department alleging Donald Trump committed at least three crimes includes one for insurrection, sources have told CNN.

The Civil War-era law has rarely been used, and it’s one prosecutors have viewed as problematic in their Jan. 6 investigations.

Justice Department prosecutors have weighed using the statute in their investigations of hundreds of people so far charged in the US Capitol attack.

But no one has been charged with insurrection.

An official involved in some of the internal decisions on Jan. 6 says officials viewed the insurrection law as challenging because there’s very little case law, raising the likelihood that prosecution could fail.

Prosecutors have instead chosen another rarely used law: seditious conspiracy.

A Washington jury convicted members of the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy last month.

The other possible referrals against Trump, obstruction of a congressional proceeding and defrauding the US government are more commonly prosecuted.

The House Jan. 6 select committee has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, including several within former President Donald Trump’s orbit, CNN’s Pamela Brown reports.

In this Magic Wall segment, Brown highlights the key witnesses linked to the former president including Bill Barr, Ivanka Trump and Pat Cipollone.

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The US Capitol is seen on Monday, December 19.

The House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, will soon hold its last public meeting, marking the end of an expansive investigation that has spanned more than 17 months, encompassed more than 1,000 interviews and culminated in accusations that former President Donald Trump and his closest allies sought to overthrow the 2020 presidential election and stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Through blockbuster hearings, interviews with some of the former president’s closest allies and court battles to free up documents, the committee sought to tell the definitive narrative of what happened in the lead up to and on Jan. 6.

On Monday, members are expected to vote on its final report – spanning hundreds of pages and encapsulating its key findings, which will be released to the public on Wednesday – as well as presentcriminal referralsit plans to make to the Justice Department. This meeting will be the panel’s last message to the public, and members are seeking to end on a powerful note.

The charges the panel is considering asking DOJ to pursue include multiple against Trump, such as obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

The recommendations match the allegations the House select committee made against Trump and his elections attorneyJohn Eastmanin a previous court proceeding seeking Eastman’s emails.

The final House report could include additional charges proposed for Trump, according to the source. It will provide justification from the committee investigation for recommending the charges.

The panel is considering criminal referrals for at least four individuals in addition to Trump,CNN has reported: former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Eastman, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Rep. Jamie Raskin listens during a House select committee hearing on October 13 in Washington, DC.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who leads the Jan. 6 subcommittee tasked with presenting recommendations on criminal referrals to the full panel, recently said that “the gravest offense in constitutional terms is the attempt to overthrow a presidential election and bypass the constitutional order. Subsidiary to all of that are a whole host of statutory offenses, which support the gravity and magnitude of that violent assault on America.”

Raskin, along with Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren, both of California, and the panel’s vice chair, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, comprised the subcommittee tasked with providing the full panel with referral recommendations that will be adopted on Monday.

A possible complication from the final Jan. 6 committee’s public meeting and the release of transcripts could come at the federal courthouse across from the Capitol where five leaders of the Proud Boys are on trial beginning today on seditious conspiracy.

Lawyers for defendants including Enrique Tarrio, have argued that the committee’s public activity has made it impossible for them to receive a fair trial.

A federal judge delayed their trial this summer, agreeing with the defense’s concerns.

Defense attorneys have raised renewed concerns about the committee’s meeting today and the final report to be released this week.

Judge Timothy Kelly has said the trial will continue.“We just have to take it as it comes and roll with it,” Kelly said.

A video of former President Donald Trump is shown on a screen during a House select committee hearing on July 21.

Former President Donald Trump’s team huddled together multiple times since they learned the committee would be issuing criminal referrals — attempting to prepare for what they believed going to happen —a criminal referral from the House Select Committee to the Department of Justice.

Sources close to Trump said much of his inner circle were not ignoring the committee’s actions, despite many around the former president brushing it off as political.

Many of his top advisers spent time on the phone with legal counsel, trying to get a deeper understanding of what exactly criminal referrals would mean and how to plan a response.

While some aides said Trump was unbothered by the committee, the former president spent the weekend fixated on their actions.

In a flurry of social media posts on Truth Social, Trump called the committee names, accused them of “illegally leaking confidential info” and hitting individuals sitting on the committee.

He also posted copies of tweets from the afternoon on Jan. 6, calling forprotestors to be “peaceful.” During the Jan. 6 hearings, former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews testified that she was told Trump did not want to include any mention of “peace” in his tweets, but ultimately gave in to White House officials and advisers urged the former president to do more as the violent attack was unfolding.

The criminal referrals are just the latest in a long line of legal battles Trump is facing as he ramps up his third presidential campaign.

For Justice Department investigators, more important than the referrals from the Jan. 6 committee, is obtaining the evidence the committee gathered — notably the transcripts of thousands of hours of interviews with witnesses.

Justice officials have pushed for access to interview transcripts for months, and the committee announced that it would turn over a limited number of witness interviews over the summer.

But to the frustration of prosecutors and US Attorney General Merrick Garland, the committee largely has held on to most of its evidence.

Investigators have closely monitored the committee’s public presentations, but much has changed in the Justice Department probes of Trump since the last hearing.

In August, the FBI carried out an extraordinary search of the former president’s home to recover thousands of pages of government documents, including national security material classified at the highest levels. That action revealed the existence of a second Trump investigation, for alleged illegal retention of classified documents and obstruction.

And now, special counsel Jack Smith overseeing both two Trump investigations.

House select committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Adam Kinzinger walk in together for the start of the final public meeting on Monday.

As the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection lays out its evidence and criminal referrals today, lawmakers are expected to hit a sober tone, sources say.

Today’s meeting is expected to be relatively brief with some multimedia presentations.

Unlike previous hearings that relied on compelling witness testimony and splashy video montages, today’s event is designed to drive home the key evidence the committee uncovered and the gravity of what transpired in the run up and on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Nobody’s spiking the football here,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat and Jan. 6 committee member, told CNN just ahead of the committee meeting.

The House select committee will hold its final public session today.

The Jan. 6 committee is treating today’s public meeting and the release of its executive summary as a “roadmap” for the Department of Justice, sources tell CNN.

The committee intends to lay out its body of evidence and drive home its conclusion that former President Donald Trump was culpable for the events that transpired on Jan. 6, 2021 — the basis for its plans to refer Trump to DOJ on at least three criminal charges.

Lawmakers are primarily focused on laying out their case for DOJ, but their wide-ranging investigation has uncovered information that congressional investigators believe could be relevant to various bodies — from state bars to the House ethics committee.

Congressional investigators have already provided what they believe is evidence of criminal activity to an Atlanta-area district attorney leading a criminal investigation into Trump and his allies, according to someone familiar with the investigation.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill reached an agreement to include legislation in a must-pass spending bill to make it harder to overturn a certified presidential election when a joint session of Congress meets to approve the results, according to Hill sources.

The legislation — to overhaul the 1887 Electoral Count Act — would be the first that is expected to be signed into law as a direct response to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.

The bill would ensure the vice president’s role is completely ceremonial, raise the threshold in Congress for forcing votes to overturn a certified result and try to prevent efforts to pass along fake electors to Congress.

The Jan. 6 committee is expected to call for the bill’s passage, according to another source.

The bill is a result of intense negotiations that won over the support of top Republicans, including Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, but has drawn pushback from House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Former President Donald Trump announces he is running for presidentduring a speech at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15.

As the Jan. 6 committee is expected to issue a criminal referral for former PresidentDonald Trump, his legal team has continued to be bogged down in internal disagreements about the many probes facing him.

Trump’s team has met to talk about what to expect from the committee today, but they are much more focused and concerned with the other investigations facing him, including the federal grand jury on Jan. 6, the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation and the special grand jury in Georgia, multiple people familiar with the workings of the team say.

Despite the many probes facingTrump, his team is not acting as a unified front, but has often been locked in serious disagreement over how to proceed on several of the investigations, mainly when it comes to the documents one.

One thingTrump’s advisers will watch for today is how deep the referrals from the committee go and whether it mentions obstruction of the investigation when it pertains toTrump.

Trumpadvisers and aides will be watching the meeting today closely, however sources close to Trump said the former President has told them he does not plan on watching.

However, he will be updated by people around him, as he has been for all of the public hearings thus far.

As of now,Trump’s legal team will not be engaging in the response to the committee today, however sources stress that this could change as the public meeting unfolds.

Republicans in the House are preparing their counteroffensive to the exhaustive investigation by the Jan. 6 committee, finalizing a report focusing on security failures at the Capitol complex and steering clear of former President Donald Trump.

A senior GOP aide said Republicans will wait for the Jan. 6 committee to put out its report first but are prepared to release theirs soon after. It’s unclear if it will come out today.

The aide said the focus will be on: “Why was the Capitol so unprepared and how do we make sure that won’t happen again?”

More on this: For much of the past two years, Republicans have tried to pin the blame on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, even though she is not in charge of day-to-day security decisions at the Capitol. Republicans expect Pelosi to factor into their final report as well.

In the new GOP majority, Republicans are not expected to make investigating the Jan. 6 investigators a heavy focus of their oversight efforts, despite previous suggestions that they would. But they may look into how the Jan. 6 committee spent its money, including by hiring a former TV executive to help produce the hearings, aides said.

Then-President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.

The Jan. 6 committee is eyeing multiple alleged crimes for a referral of former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department,CNN reportedlast week.

According to a source familiar with the matter, they include:

For the latter two, the lawmakers can rely onan opinion from a federal judgein California, who wrote earlier this year that there was evidence that Trump and his allies were plotting to defraud the US government and to obstruct an official proceeding. The opinion was handed down by US District Judge David O. Carter in a dispute over whether the House could access certain emails sent to and from former Trump attorney John Eastman.

The judge cited emails discussing Trump’s awareness that certain voter fraud claims being made in court were inaccurate as evidence of a plot to defraud the federal government. To explain his finding of evidence of obstruction, the judge pointed to emails that showed that the Trump team was contemplating filing lawsuits not to obtain legitimate legal relief, but to meddle in congressional proceedings.

A House referral for an insurrection charge would be a more aggressive move. It’s a crime to assist or engage in “in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws.” Judges have used the term “insurrection” to describe the January 6 attack on Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election.

But the Justice Department has not opted to bring the charge in its hundreds of US Capitol riot cases. Instead, prosecutors have relied on criminal statutes related to violence, obstruction of an official proceeding, and, in some limited cases, seditious conspiracy.

Who else could be referred? The panel has also weighed criminal referrals for a number of Trump’s closest allies including, Eastman, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, multiple sourcestold CNNearlier this month.

Another source cautioned at the time that while names were being considered, there was still discussion to be had before they were finalized.

CNN’s Evan Perez and Katelyn Polantz contributed reporting to this post.

Rep. Adam Schiff delivers remarks during a hearing by the House select committee on October 13.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House select committeeinvestigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, said Sunday the panel is considering how to hold accountable the GOP lawmakers who defied their subpoenas.

Schiff said the committee would be considering this on Monday, noting that the panel has weighed whether it is better to criminally refer members of Congress to other parts of the federal government or if Congress should “police its own.” Such congressional mechanisms could include censure and referrals to the House Ethics Committee.

From left to right, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

Five House Republicans have been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 panel: GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

The select committee is set tohold its final public hearingtoday and release its full report on Wednesday. The panel is expected to announce it will refer at least three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department, including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government,according to a source familiar with the matter.

The impact House referrals could have remains unclear because the Department of Justice special counsel investigation is already examining Trump in its extensive probe into the Jan. 6 riot.

But in addition to criminal referrals, Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson told reporters that the panel could issue five to six other categories of referrals, such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.

“Censure was something that we have considered. Ethics referrals is something we have considered,” Schiff said Sunday, noting that the committee will disclose its decision Monday.

CNN previously reported that the panel has also weighed criminal referrals for a number of Trump’s closest allies, including former Trump attorney John Eastman, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, according to multiple sources.

Vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney is seen in an elevator on the Capitol complex before the House select committee's final meeting on Monday.

Nearly two years removed from the violent attack on the US Capitol,the House select committeetasked with finding out exactly what happened is about to show its hand.

The panel will hold its final public meeting on Monday, followed by the release of its full report on Wednesday.

Unlike previous gatherings of the committee, Monday’s is a business meeting rather than a hearing as no witnesses are set to testify.

What to expect from the session: The public meeting, scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET, is expected to see the panel announce that it will referat least three criminal chargesagainstformer President Donald Trumpto the Justice Department.

The committee will release an executive summary of the investigation’s report on Monday after the meeting, a committee aide said Sunday. The final report, to be released two days later, will provide justification from the panel’s investigation for recommending the charges.

Why now?Republicans are expected to dissolve the panel when they take over the House in January.

A video showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is shown during a House select committee hearing on October 13.

The House select committee’s October hearing on the Capitol Hill insurrection used testimony and evidence to demonstrate howformer President Donald Trumpknew he had lost the election but still went forward with efforts to overturn the results, leading to the attack on theUS Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Here’s a recap of what unfolded at the hearing:

Read more here.

The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot is dropping several of its pursuits for Jan. 6-related phone records, according to court filings last week, as the panel winds down before it expires at the end of this year.

The committee sent out dozens of subpoenas seeking call logs, including to major phone companies, as part of its investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election result. But several Trump allies sued, contesting the committee’s authority, and Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile agreed not to turn over any data to the House while those lawsuits were litigated in court. Few of the cases have been resolved.

That means the House select committee will not be able to incorporate in its final report some of the information it long sought about the communications of top witnesses around Donald Trump and the White House in late 2020 and January 2021. The panel plans to release the report next week.

Last week, the committee withdrew its phone-records subpoenas related to Trump adviserSebastian Gorka, White House aideStephen Miller, elections attorneyCleta Mitchell, conservative political activistRoger Stone, some Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendants andAmy Harris, a photojournalist who spent time with top members of the Proud Boys around Jan. 6, 2021, according to filings in seven House subpoena challenges that were pending in the DC District Court.

“On December 12, 2022, Plaintiffs were informed by counsel for the Select Committee that the Select Committee will be withdrawing the subject subpoena issued by the Committee,” one court filing, from lawyers representing members of the Oath Keepers extremist group, wrote in one recent request to drop a lawsuit.

Some of the subpoenas were issued a year ago.The committee declined to comment.

While these witnesses and some others successfully blocked the committee from obtaining their phone records, the panel was able to access unprecedented amounts of information in their investigation, including through other phone records subpoenas, other document requests and witness interviews. Some of that information was on display in a series of public hearings over the summer.

Rep. Bennie Thompson presides over a hearing on October 13.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, told reporters last week that the panel will make announcements about criminal referrals to the Justice Department in Monday’s meeting.

What this means: Criminal referrals would largely be symbolic in nature. The committee lacks prosecutorial powers, and the Justice Department does not need a referral from Congress to investigate crimes as it has its own criminal investigations into the Capitol attack ongoing.

Committee members see criminal referrals as a critical part of their work, putting their views on the record in order to complete their investigation – not as a way to pressure DOJ, sources have told CNN.

Thompson told CNN that the panel is looking at five to six categories of referrals beyond those deemed criminal, but has not decided on the specific number of individuals.

Thompson said that in addition to criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, there could be other categories of referrals the committee makes such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.

Thompson told reporters last Tuesday that Monday’s public meeting will include a presentation and cover the names of people facing criminal and other referrals, as will as the basis for those referrals.

A subcommittee of members has made recommendations to the full committee about various referrals. During the public meeting, the full committee is expected to vote on adopting the subcommittee’s recommendations.

CNN reported earlier this month that the committee is considering criminal referrals for at least four individuals in addition toformer President Donald Trump,

Supporters of then-President Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol is set to lay out its findings in a final report. When and how the events occurred that day have been a key part of the committee’s probe since the panel formed in July 2021.

Supporters of then-President Trump breached the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, engulfing the building in chaos after Trump urged his supporters to protest against the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes to certify President Biden’s win.

Here’s how key events unfolded throughout the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump’s speech:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement earlier on the evening of Jan. 6 that congressional leadership wanted to continue with the joint session that night.

Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor that the “United States Senate will not be intimidated. We will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs or threats.”

It took until deep in the early hours of Thursday morning (Jan. 7, 2021), but Congress eventually counted and certified Biden’s election win.

See the full timeline of events here.

Rep. Bennie Thompson swears in former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson during the sixth hearing held by the House select committee on June 28.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, told reporters the committee will hold its final public meeting on Monday and that the panel’s full report will come out December 21.

Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said the committee will approve the panel’s final report on Dec. 19 and make announcements about criminal referrals to the Justice Department, but the public will not see the final report until two days later.

“We will do all of the business of the committee on the 19th,” Thompson said, which includes voting on the final report.

Members of the committee have promised to have the committee’s report released before the end of the year, as Republicans are expected to dissolve the committee when they take over the chamber in the next Congress.

Read more here.

Former President Donald Trump attends a rally to support Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections in Dayton, Ohio, on November 7.

Former President Donald Trump, whose third White House bid has already become mired in controversy, is facing a myriad of legal issues, alongside his business and allies.

Aside from the Jan. 6 committee’s probe, here are some other notable investigations involving Trump:

Tax returns.The House Ways and Means Committee finally got access to the former president’s tax returns after the Supreme Court dealt a massive defeat to Trump, paving the way for the Internal Revenue Service to hand over the documents to the Democratic-led House. The committee’s chairman, Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, first sought the tax returns from the IRS in 2019, and the agency, under the Trump administration, initially resisted turning them over.

Mar-a-Lago documents. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointedspecial counsel Jack Smithto oversee the Justice Department criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at Trump’s resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

TheJustice Department investigationcontinues into whether documents from the Trump White House were illegally mishandled when they were brought to Mar-a-Lago in Florida after he left office. A federal grand jury in Washington has been empaneled and has interviewed potential witnesses to how Trump handled the documents.

2020 Election. The Justice Department has an investigation of its own into the post-2020 election period. While DOJ has not acted publicly during theso-called quiet periodleading up to the midterms, a grand jury in Washington has been hearing from witnesses.

Meanwhile, Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis is overseeing a special grand jury investigating what Trump or his allies may have done in their efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. The probe was launched following Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he pushed the Republican to “find” votes to overturn the election results.

Trump Organization. New York Attorney General Letitia James, after a lengthy investigation,sued Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organizationin September, alleging they were involved in an expansive fraud lasting over a decade that the former president used to enrich himself.

James alleged the fraud touched all aspects of the Trump business, including its properties and golf courses. According to the lawsuit, the Trump Organization deceived lenders, insurers and tax authorities by inflating the value of his properties using misleading appraisals.

Read more about other investigations here.

From left to right, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, Rep. Pete Aguilar, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, Vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Rep. Jamie Raskin and Rep. Elaine Luria are seated as the House select committee hearing on June 9.

Members of the House select committee have been investigating what happened before, after and during the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. Now they are getting ready to present their findings in a final report.

The committee is made up of 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans. It was formed after efforts to create an independent 9/11-style commission failed.

Rep. Liz Cheney is one of two Republicans on the panel appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all five of his selections because Pelosi would not accept two of his picks. In July 2021, Pelosi invited GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to join the committee, making him the second GOP lawmaker to sit on the committee.

Here’s who is on the panel:

Democrats:

Republicans

Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson speaks during the House select committee's first hearing on June 9.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is set to make announcements atits final public meetingon Monday about criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

So what is a criminal referral? A referral represents a recommendation that the Justice Department investigate and look at charging the individuals in question. The House committee’s final report – to be released Wednesday – will provide justification from the panel’s investigation for recommending the charges.

But any move by the Jan. 6 panel to approve a referral would be largely symbolic because a referral by no means obligates federal prosecutors to bring such a case.

Withthe federal investigationnow being led by special counsel Jack Smith, it appears Justice Department investigators are already looking at much of the conduct that the select committee has highlighted.

But whether the department brings charges will depend on whether the facts and the evidence support a prosecution, Attorney General Merrick Garland has said. Garland will make the ultimate call on charging decisions.

In addition to criminal referrals, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the chair of the Jan. 6 committee, has said the panel could issue five to sixother categories of referrals, such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.

CNN’s Evan Perez and Katelyn Polantz contributed reporting to this post.

Former DC police officer Michael Fanone listens to testimony during a House select committee hearing on July 12.

Michael Fanone, a former DC police officer and CNN law enforcement analyst, told CNN he would like to see the referrals from the Jan. 6 committee lead to an indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Fanone was beaten by rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.

“I would like to see those individuals put on trial and then again, as I’ve said many times, as Americans we should accept the results of those trials, even if it includes a guilty verdict for former President Donald Trump and jail time,” he said.

Fanone also said he is “hopeful” the Justice Department will bring an indictment against Trump.

The White House building seen in Washington, DC, on October 20.

When the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol delivers its ultimateconclusionto the public this week – holding a final publicmeetingon Monday and announcingexpectedcriminal referrals to the Justice Department, followed by the release of its full report on Wednesday – the White House is expected to watch quietly and decline to offer judgment on any recommendations that the panel may make to the Justice Department.

For much of the year, top White House officials have made painstaking efforts to avoid delivering specific commentary on the panel’s work. There was one goal in particular of utmost urgency: staying clear of any moves that might suggest that the White House was trying to exert influence on the DOJ.

And those efforts are likely to become even more imperative for the Biden White House after the committee refers at least three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump to the DOJ, as a source familiar with the matter said the committee was expected to do this week.

One White House official told CNN ahead of the committee’s upcoming lastmeetingon Monday that it would continue to not weigh in on any potential referrals or actions that the panel may take. Another official said this would be in line with the White House’s efforts this year to avoid “running pundit” on the panel’s work.

But officials also noted that President Biden himself has been clear in his public remarks about the significance of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, the importance of the committee’s work, not to mention his rejection of last year’s insurrection and the threats to the country’s democratic systems.

Indeed, Biden made that a central theme of his political message in the lead-up to the midterm elections – that decision drew criticism from some fellow Democrats who argued he needed to have a nearly singular focus on the economy, but ultimately left the White House feeling vindicated after Democrats far outperformed expectations.

And in the rare moments that Biden did directly comment on the committee, he made clear that he believes the members are doing work critical to documenting history.

“It’s important the American people understand what truly happened and to understand that the same forces that led January 6 remain at work today,” Biden said this summer.

In October, following a hearing that revealed evidence and testimony from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchison who said Trump continued efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election even though he knew he had lost reelection, Biden described the testimony and video as “absolutely devastating.”

Former President Donald Trump attends a rally to support Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections in Dayton, Ohio, on November 7.

The House select committee investigatingJan. 6, 2021, is expected to announce it will refer at least three criminal charges againstformer President Donald Trumpto the Justice Department, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The charges include:

The committee’s final recommendations could include additional charges proposed for Trump, according to the source. The referral recommendations will be presented at a committee meeting on Monday and the final report will provide justification from the panel’s investigation for recommending the charges.

The impact House referrals could have remains unclear because the Department of Justice special counsel investigation is already examining Trump in its extensive probe into Jan. 6. But in addition to criminal referrals, committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson told reporters that the panel could issue five to six other categories of referrals, such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.

More on the charges: The charging recommendations under considerationof obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government matchallegations the select committee madeagainst Trump and his elections attorney John Eastman in a previous court proceeding seeking Eastman’s emails. A judge had agreed with the House, finding it could access Eastman’s emails about his 2020 election work for Trump because the pair was likely planning to defraud the US and engaging in a conspiracy to obstruct Congress, according to that court proceeding.

The Guardian wasfirst to reporton the committee’s consideration of the charges.

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, criticized the committee in a statement as a “Kangaroo court” that held “show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the committee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper Friday that the panel has “been very careful in crafting these recommendations and tethering them to the facts that we’ve uncovered.”

“We spent a huge amount of time not just on what the code sections are and the bottom line recommendation, but the facts – and I think it’s really important when we discuss whatever it is we are going to do and we’ll have a vote on it, that people understand the facts behind the conclusions we reach,” the California Democrat said on “The Lead.”

The Justice Department has largely focused on criminal statutes related to the violence, for obstructing a congressional proceeding and in some limited cases for seditious conspiracy, when charging defendants in connection with the attack on the US Capitol.

The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 will release an executive summary of the investigation’s final report on Monday after the 1 p.m. ET meeting, a committee aide said Sunday.

As CNN previously reported, the committee will also be releasing the entire report on Wednesday.