1/6 Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that any criminal referrals made by the 1/6 Committee are an important statement about the attack on our democracy.
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Adam Schiff on 1/6 Committee criminal referrals, "I think it makes an important statement. A statement about the evidence of an attack on the institutions of democracy and peaceful transfer of power." pic.twitter.com/tb0qfAlnEs
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 11, 2022
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MARGARET BRENNAN: But don’t we already know that? I mean, there is the Justice Department investigation, special counsel looking into the former president. We know the DOJ has been looking into Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani. So what does the committee sending a referral do other than look political?
REP. SCHIFF: Well, look, we have been far out ahead in most respects of the Justice Department and conducting our investigation. I think they have made use of the evidence that we have presented in open hearings. I think they’ll make use of the evidence that we prefer to present in our report to further their investigations. And I think it makes an important statement, not a political one, but a statement about the evidence of an attack on the institutions of our democracy and the peaceful transfer of power, that Congress examining an attack on itself is willing to report criminality. So I think it’s an important decision in its own right if we go forward with it and one that the department ought to give due consideration to.
Rep. Schiff is correct. The criminal referrals matter because they send the message that crimes were committed in the view of Congress. The committee has no control over the potential prosecution of those alleged crimes, but the fact that they were criminally referred will follow each of Trump’s co-conspirators for the rest of their lives.
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The criminal referrals matter because they are an easily understandable signal for the American people that Trump and his allies committed crimes to attempt to stay in power after losing an election.
The 1/6 Committee should use every tool at its disposal to discourage this from ever happening again.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
