Jan. 6 committee approves final report and criminal referrals against Trump

Lawmakers on the congressional January 6 committee are conducting their final hearing on Monday and the committee has formally issued their final report and criminal referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice against former President Donald Trump.

“We’ve never had a president of the United States stir up a violent attempt to block the transfer of power. I believe, nearly two years later, this is still a time of reflection and reckoning," Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairman, said at the hearing.

The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, recommended numerous charges against Trump, among them federal charges of including conspiracy to defraud the United States as well as an attempt to incite, assist, "aid and comfort" an insurrection.

The charge stems from Trump’s alleged oversight of the brief Capitol riot on Jan. 6, which critics and commentators have argued was a violent attempt to overthrow the U.S. government. 

The committee could vote on further charges in addition to the three to be considered on Monday; those charges stem from an earlier report from a Jan. 6 subcommittee. 

A Trump spokesman, meanwhile, denounced the procedure, telling media the Jan. 6 committee itself was “a Hollywood executive’s vanity documentary project that insults Americans’ intelligence and makes a mockery of our democracy.

Between April to June, the committee spent more than $3 million on its investigation. The final cost is unclear.