Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, told reporters the committee will hold its final public meeting on Monday and that the panel’s full report will come out December 21.
Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said the committee will approve the panel’s final report on December 19 and make announcements about criminal referrals to the Justice Department, but the public will not see the final report until two days later.
“We will do all of the business of the committee on the 19th,” Thompson said, which includes voting on the final report.
Members of the committee have promised to have the committee’s report released before the end of the year, as Republicans are expected to dissolve the committee when they take over the chamber in the next Congress.
Thompson told CNN that the panel is looking at five to six categories of referrals beyond those deemed criminal, but has not decided on the specific number of individuals.
Thompson said that in addition to criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, there could be other categories of referrals the committee makes such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.
Thompson said that when members met on Sunday they did not talk about the number of criminal referrals they talked about the different categories of referrals they wanted to pursue.
Thompson told reporters on Tuesday that Monday’s public meeting will include a presentation and cover the names of people facing criminal and other referrals, as will as the basis for those referrals...
Pursuing a range of referrals -- criminal, ethics, bar discipline, etc. -- seems like the best way to make sure none of the pustules involved in the attempt to overthrow a free and fair election goes unpunished. No manner of whitewashing and memory-holing will remove the stain from that un-American act, though the new Christofascist Republican House majority will give it a run come January.
"The Meadows Texts," obtained and published by TPM, offer something of a preview for the potential criminal, ethical and other referrals. Voluminous in themselves, they only represent a partial picture of the totality of the evidence the committee is expected to reveal in its final meeting and the subsequent final report on December 21.
