Jan. 6 committee recommends criminal charges against Trump for Capitol attack

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• Judy Woodruff:

  The committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is wrapping up its investigation after 18 months, more than 1,000 interviews, and 10 public hearings.

  Today, the members voted to approve their final report. And they recommended that the Department of Justice charge former President Donald Trump with four crimes, including aiding an insurrection.

  Lisa Desjardins was in the hearing room today, and she joins us now from the Capitol.

  So, Lisa, let's start with the news. These criminal referrals, tell us more about them, and to whom are they aimed?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Let's get right into what the committee is talking about, specifically with former President Trump.

  Let's look at those four criminal referrals, recommendations to the Department of Justice. First, obstruction of an official proceeding, that is for obstructing the actual January 6 count of the electoral votes by Congress. Then, conspiracy to defraud the United States, that refers to several instances, the committee says, including the so-called big lie by former President Trump, as well as the idea that former Vice President Pence could himself stop the electoral account.

  Next, conspiracy to make false statements, that specifically is about the scheme, as the committee puts it, to try to put false elector slates on the board, overturn the actual electors for each state. Then, finally, assisting and aiding or comforting an insurrection.

  These are all, clearly, very serious charges. He's not the only one getting a criminal referral from the January 6 Committee. Let's look at someone else, another Trump ally involved here. Attorney John Eastman, he is being referred to for two charges, obstruction and conspiracy.

  And in addition to him, there are three other names I want to bring up. These are potential co-conspirators that the committee said it is not referring for charges, but it is calling them co-conspirators, basically saying the Department of Justice should look into them, Kenneth — an attorney there, Kenneth Chesebro, Mark Meadows, the former president's former chief of staff, and Rudy Giuliani, a well-known name, President Trump's former attorney.

  Now, talking about why they made these referrals and the understanding that this is unprecedented in U.S. history and important, here is representative Jamie Raskin from the committee.

• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD):

  We understand the gravity of each and every referral we are making today, just as we understand the magnitude of the crime against democracy that we describe in our report.

  But we have gone where the facts and the law lead us. And, inescapably, they lead us here.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Judy, important to know that the committee is saying they believe there is clear evidence that they have obtained on those referrals to prosecute and convict on those four charges for the former president.

  But they're saying they don't think the Department of Justice is limited. They think there may be other crimes and, in fact, other people associated with the former president who should be charged. They're just saying these are the crimes for which they believe there's indisputable evidence that they have gathered.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And, Lisa, we know that there are other lawmakers — or lawmakers who were named in this. Fill that part of this story out for us.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  This is notable, four current members of Congress — let's look at these names here — are being referred to from the committee for an ethics investigation by the House, Kevin McCarthy, the man who would like to be House speaker in just a few weeks, Jim Jordan, the man who is likely to be the House chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Andy Biggs of Arizona too, a former and a current chairman of the Freedom Caucus.

  All four of them being referred, Judy, because they refused to testify before the committee, even though they were subpoenaed. Now, this raises, of course, some pushback from Republicans. They say this committee is political, that it has always targeted a president of one party deliberately, has not done enough to look at the security questions involved.

  I spoke last week to one of those Republicans, Rodney Davis. He was appointed to this committee at one point, refused to serve because he said Nancy Pelosi was too political in rejecting other Republicans for that committee. Here's what he told me.

• Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL):

  Nancy Pelosi knew when she was going to deny for the first time in our nation's history minority leader — the minority leader to appoint members to a select committee. She knew what she wanted. And she's getting what she wanted. And that is a one-sided report that, unfortunately, does nothing to improve the security apparatus here in and around the Capitol Complex, in my opinion.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  We have one of the largest investigations in Congress looking at a day of divide here at the Capitol. And, of course, its findings themselves are divisive.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And, Lisa, we know you were up very late last night into the wee hours of this morning reading this entire 160-some-odd page report in detail.

  Step back and give us a sense of the bigger picture it paints.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  I think, if you look at what they're saying about former President Trump, you can think about three broad categories of what they allege that he did here that was so wrong and criminal, in fact.

  First, they're talking about the big lie itself. They're saying former President Trump was premeditated in setting up the idea that the election could be stolen, and then he did indeed say it was stolen, even though he knew otherwise. A second thing that they're talking about is pressure campaigns on the Department of Justice, the former Vice President Pence, and election officials across the country in states.

  And then, third, I think one of the big cruxes of this report, Judy, is talking about the president's refusal to step in and try and tell the crowd to stop on January 6. Now, if you look, that was also part of the video that the committee showed today in its summary, highlights of what it did and what it showed over the past few hearings.

  Let's take a look at this clip, which starts with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley.

  Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: You have got an assault going on, on the Capitol of the United States of America, and there's nothing? No call? Nothing? Zero?

• Rioters:

  Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!

  Cassidy Hutchinson, Former Aide to Mark Meadows: I remember Pat saying something to the effect of: "Mark, we need to do something more. They're literally calling for the vice president to be effing hung."

  And Mark had responded something to the effect of: "You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."

• Lisa Desjardins:

  And the chairman and vice chairman of this committee summed up their approach in large historic terms against what they saw as a historic threat.

  Let's listen to those bites right now, these sound bites.

• Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY):

  Every president in our history has defended this orderly transfer of authority, except one. January 6, 2021, was the first time one American president refused his constitutional duty to transfer power peacefully to the next.

  In our work over the last 18 months, the Select Committee has recognized our obligation to do everything we can to ensure this never happens again.

• Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS):

  That faith in our system is the foundation of American democracy. If the faith is broken, so is our democracy.

  Donald Trump broke that faith. He summoned a mob to Washington, and, knowingly, they were armed and angry, pointed them to the Capitol, and told them to fight like hell. There's no doubt about this.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Judy, today, we saw that large executive summary of the report. We expect the full report as soon as Wednesday, and then, after that, something the Department of Justice wants to see very much transcripts of the 1,000 or so interviews that this committee conducted.

  Those will obviously play a very big role in what the Department of Justice does next.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Very much looking forward to seeing all of that.

  Lisa Desjardins on this story from day one reporting from the Capitol.

  Thank you, Lisa.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  You're welcome.