Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the January 6 Committee, said Monday evening there would be no criminal referrals of former President Donald Trump or anyone else to the Department of Justice (DOJ) — and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) promptly disagreed in public.
NEW – @BennieGThompson says the Jan. 6 select cmte will NOT make any criminal referral to the Justice Department on Trump or anyone else
— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) June 13, 2022
/2 Thompson: “That’s not our job. Our job is to look at Jan. 6. What caused it and make recommendations after that… We don’t have the authority.”
— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) June 13, 2022
/3 Thompson said that the cmte will publicly release all document & materials – including depositions – as part of its public report. If DOJ wants to talk to members/staff about that material, they will do so, of course
— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) June 13, 2022
/4 It’s important to note – and people get confused by this – that Congress isn’t equipped for criminal investigations. The 1/6 cmte can & has made criminal contempt referrals, but it’s not a law enforcement agency.
— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) June 13, 2022
Cheney, one of two anti-Trump Republicans hand-picked by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to serve on the committee, fired back:
The January 6th Select Committee has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals. We will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time.
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) June 14, 2022
The committee has voted to recommend that several former Trump aides be held in contempt of Congress, and the full U.S. House has voted for several contempt referrals, two of which have led to prosecutions, contrary to DOJ’s custom of declining such referrals.
Democrats and many in the establishment media have been pressing the committee to provide a basis for the DOJ to charge Trump as well. The absence of a criminal referral does not mean the DOJ will not prosecute Trump or his aides: the DOJ is reportedly using transcripts from the committee’s behind-closed-doors depositions in criminal investigations.
Regardless, the feud between Thompson and Cheney means there are finally opposing voices represented on the committee.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.