Can Trump Be Charged As Result Of The Jan. 6 Committee Investigation? Here’s What To Know

Topline

The House January 6 Committee has started making a public case against former President Donald Trump and his allies in a series of hearings, arguing the former president “oversaw and coordinated” an unlawful plan to overturn the 2020 election—but the Justice Department, not Congress, is the only entity that could bring criminal charges against Trump or his allies.

President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on January 06, 2021.

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Key Facts

Congressional committees can gather evidence and investigate potential crimes, as well as make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, but lawmakers cannot themselves charge anyone with a crime.

Lawmakers on the committee have said determining whether Trump committed a crime isn’t their goal: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) told reporters “it’s for someone else to decide whether” allegations they’ve made are “criminal or not” and that isn’t “the purview” of a House committee.

The Justice Department doesn’t need a criminal referral from Congress to investigate a potential crime and determine whether to bring charges, and if it receives a criminal referral, it doesn’t actually have to act on it.

Committee lawmakers are split on whether they will bring any criminal referrals, with chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) saying they won’t, and other members of the committee like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) saying they still haven’t ruled it out.

Lawmakers are concerned a criminal referral could backfire by making any charges brought seem more political and partisan, the New York Times reported in April, and Thompson said the committee will publicly release its findings for the Justice Department to use as it sees fit.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has said he and federal prosecutors are watching the hearings—but he has not made any comments regarding whether charges could be brought—and NBC News reports there have been “conversations” inside the department about the implications of charging Trump.

What We Don’t Know

Whether or not Trump will actually be charged. The president could face charges for conspiracy to defraud the United States or obstruct an official proceeding for his efforts to overturn the election and block Congress’ counting of the electoral votes, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told the New Yorker. Trump and his allies could also be subject to fraud charges after lawmakers detailed how the Trump campaign asked supporters to donate to an “Official Election Defense Fund” that allegedly wasn’t actually used on post-election efforts, but rather funneled to other Trump-related political groups. Legal experts told the Times the committee’s first hearing put forth “the makings of a credible criminal case” against Trump, though McQuade noted it would be “really hard” to prove Trump acted with criminal intent and knew his fraud allegations were false. It’s difficult to put together an “airtight criminal prosecution” that would convince a jury of that, McQuade said, which would weigh into prosecutors’ decision over whether to bring charges. Other experts cited by Insider also noted it could likely be difficult to bring fraud charges over the alleged donation issues and prove intent in that case.

Crucial Quote

“We are proceeding with full urgency with respect, as I’ve said many times before, to hold all perpetrators who are criminally responsible for Jan. 6 accountable, regardless of their level, their position and regardless of whether they were present at the events on Jan. 6,” Garland said Monday. “We’re just going to follow the facts wherever they lead.”

Chief Critic

Trump hit back at the allegations made by the House January 6 Committee and its witnesses in a 12-page statement in response to the first House hearings, denying he played any role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol building and maintaining the election was “rigged and stolen” despite testimony showing the Trump campaign was aware there was no credible evidence of voter fraud. Calling the committee’s probe a “sham investigation,” the ex-president accused the House committee of “put[ting] on a smoke and mirrors show for the American people, in a pitiful last-ditch effort to deceive the American public…again.”

What To Watch For

The House committee’s hearings will resume Thursday, and at least six more hearings are scheduled to take place laying out Trump’s plan to overturn the election and how he “summoned” the mob of supporters that attacked the Capitol on January 6. The committee will also release a written report of its findings, likely in the fall.

Big Number

67%. That’s the share of registered voters who said the Justice Department should “probably” or “definitely” bring legal action against elected officials who have attempted to overturn an election, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted June 10-12, while 63% support legal action against officials who “have misled Americans about the outcome of an election.” The poll also found a 57% majority blame Trump for the January 6 attack, though that’s down from 63% who said the same in January 2021.

Key Background

The House January 6 committee kicked off its series of public hearings on Thursday, arguing that Trump was “at the center” of a “sophisticated” conspiracy to overturn the election results and “subvert American democracy” that culminated with the January 6 attack. “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney argued during the first hearing, before a second hearing on Monday detailed the Trump team’s awareness that its election fraud claims were false. The hearings come after the committee has already alleged in a court filing in March it had a “good-faith basis” to believe that Trump and his allies “engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States,” and after a federal judge ruled in March that Trump “more likely than not” attempted to illegally obstruct Congress’ vote count on January 6. The Justice Department has already separately arrested more than 840 people as of June 6 for their role in the January 6 attack.