The U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in a historic vote agreed unanimously Monday to refer former President Donald Trump and others to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges, including inciting or aiding an insurrection.
Trump associates, including attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a former Republican House member from North Carolina, likely also played criminal roles, the panel said in an executive summary of its final report.
The panel also referred four House Republicans to the House Ethics Committee for refusing to testify: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and California’s Kevin McCarthy, who is likely to become the next speaker when Republicans take control of the House in January.
Before taking the unprecedented step of referring a former president for criminal charges, the bipartisan panel recapped in its final public meeting its findings that Trump engaged in a multipart plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the deadly attack on the Capitol that shook a bedrock of the nation’s democracy.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a former Republican House member from North Carolina, likely also played a criminal role, the panel said in its report.
The Justice Department, which is already investigating Trump’s conduct related to the 2020 election, will determine how to pursue the referrals.
In a post to his own social media network on Monday, Truth Social, Trump promoted another Dec. 9 post that linked to his video on Jan. 6 telling supporters to leave the Capitol. Committee members said that video came after more than three hours of inaction as Trump watched the attack.
Four counts
The committee’s seven Democrats and two Republicans all voted to refer Trump for criminal charges on four counts: Read more