Trump's criminal referrals

The 1/6 committee referred the traitor thug Trump to the DoJ for breaking four laws. As always for white collar crimes like that criminal intent is front and center. Goon tyrants in the US like Trump are expert at making sure plausible deniability is sufficient to convince at least 1 juror there is reasonable doubt or plausible deniability. People like the lying pro-tyranny lawyer John Eastman gave advice to Trump that he will point to as evidence he seriously believed he was not breaking any law.

That is one huge bulwark that defends Trump against a criminal indictment.

Another bulwark in favor of Trump is the paralyzed Merrick Garland.

Between the plausible deniability and the ineffective Garland, the criminal referrals of the 1/6 Committee may not go anywhere.

The unknown here is special prosecutor Jack Smith. I don’t know if the criminal referrals will reach Smith or not.

NBC News summarized:

• The committee voted to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department for former President Donald Trump, lawyer John Eastman and unspecified "others." Trump was referred under four criminal statutes: obstructing an official proceeding, making false statements, defrauding the U.S. and inciting an insurrection.

• The panel also referred four Republican members of Congress to the House Ethics Committee for ignoring its subpoenas, though it did not name the members.

• The committee released a 154-page summary of its findings Monday. The full final report is expected to be made public later this week.

The 154 page 1/6 Committee introductory material is at this link. The final full report will be released with in the next week.

The Hill comments on the referrals:

Investigators on the committee said they decided on criminal referrals against Trump based on sufficient evidence showing that he violated various statutes: inciting, assisting, or aiding and comforting an insurrection; obstructing an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and other conspiracy statutes.

The recommendations themselves, however, are largely symbolic, as the Department of Justice is not required to look into referrals from congressional committees. They also come as the agency is conducting its own investigation into the Capitol riot that was recently put under the purview of an independent special counsel.

But the referrals nonetheless mark a significant escalation in the political fight between the committee and Trump, especially as the former president wages his third bid for the White House.