The US House Select Committee probing events surrounding the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol building noted last month that then-US President Donald Trump and key congressional allies conspired to disrupt the certification of Electoral College votes in the 2020 US election, according to Sunday remarks from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), committee vice-chair and one of two Republicans on the 9-member panel.
“It's definitely clear … what President Trump was doing. What a number of people around him were doing. That they knew it was unlawful. They did it anyway,” Cheney told CNN’s Jake Tapper, speaking of the alleged effort to halt official election proceedings.
Moreover, enough evidence has been gathered to satisfy a criminal referral against the now-former US president.
“I think what we have seen is a massive and well organized and well-planned effort that used multiple tools to try to overturn an election,” the panel’s vice-chair said, touting the committee’s possession of “a tremendous amount of testimony and documents” capable of demonstrating the scope of the effort, including its organization and objective.
“The objective was absolutely to try to stop the kind of electoral votes, to try to interfere with that official proceeding,” Cheney said. “And it’s absolutely clear that they knew what they were doing was wrong.”
Cheney’s remarks came shortly after the New York Times reported that the panel was divided on whether or not to issue such a referral, which would go to a full vote in the House of Representatives before progressing to the US Department of Justice for the possibility of an indictment.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) promptly shot down the reported divide as “nonsense,” tweeting plainly that “there is no split” concerning the panel’s position. However, the Republican lawmaker did not expound on the subject.
“I’m not going to address what we will do,” he said of the House Select Committee. “But DoJ will be able to read everything we do, and it’s their choice.”
Last week, the 9-member panel voted to recommend Trump-era trade adviser Peter Navarro and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino for criminal contempt charges after both refused to cooperate with a congressional subpoena, and failed to appear at scheduled depositions.
Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the January 6 riot, has not been charged with a crime.
As of this article’s publication, former White House strategist Steve Bannon is the sole individual to be indicted in relation to the investigation–with two counts of contempt of Congress handed down by a grand jury in November.
Each count carries jail time, ranging from a minimum of 30 days to a maximum of one year behind bars, as well as a fine of $100 to $100,000. Bannon is set to appear before US District Judge Carl Nichols on July 18.