The January 6 Select Committee met for the last time on Monday and recommended four criminal charges for former President Donald Trump and his allies, chief among them insurrection.
Other charges recommended for the former president and company include obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States government, and making false statements to the United States government.
According to France24 White House correspondent Kethevane Gorjestani, the meeting began with a 10-minute video that summarized what happened on January 6 and what role Trump and his allies played in it.
Each committee member then spoke about an individual element of Trump's role in the riots: Trump knew he lost, pressured state officials, the Department of Justice, and then-Vice President Mike Pence, summoned the mob to the Capitol, and then took 187 minutes to call them off.
The committee approved the report unanimously, including the criminal referrals.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called the insurrection charge "a grave offense." If convicted of the charge, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment would bar Trump from holding public office again, though a two-thirds vote by Congress would allow that restriction to be lifted.
"We understand the gravity of each and every referral we are making today," Raskin concluded during the proceedings. "Just as we understand the magnitude of the crime against democracy that we described in our report."
During his comments on the charges, Raskin explained his rationale in bringing the charges: "Ours is not a system of justice where foot-soldiers go to jail and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass."
US prosecutors have convicted a number of individuals with crimes related to the deadly riot, with charges being filed against at least 964 individuals so far.
The House Select Committee does not have the power to bring charges itself but can recommend that the Justice Department bring charges against an individual or entity. To that end, House Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) stated: "[The committee has] every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice."
The committee has also referred Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan (R-Ca), Scott Perry (R-PA) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) to be sanctioned by an ethics panel for their failure to comply with issued subpoenas.
Trump responded to the developments late Friday, calling the charges "fake" and blasting them as yet another attempt to block his White House bid. "The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party," he said on his social media platform TruthSocial.