Thread by @kyledcheney

I can’t emphasize enough: There is zero substantive value to criminal referrals from the Jan. 6 committee. If they release *actual evidence* of a crime, DOJ will see it and (likely) bring charges.

Whether they package it up and write “Dear Merrick” on top is irrelevant.

The committee has already described evidence of potential crimes by Trump (and gotten a judge to agree with their assessment). They’ll likely release more of it with the report.

This was, for all intents and purposes, a criminal referral.

politico.com/amp/news/2022/…

The committee may very well issue “referrals” to DOJ describing alleged crimes by Trump, maybe witness tampering and perjury by others. The evidence accompanying those referrals will have value to DOJ. The referral itself does not. politico.com/amp/news/2022/…

And it’s important that DOJ has surpassed the committee on key tranches of evidence, piercing the claimed executive privilege of witnesses like Pat Cipollone and Marc Short. So DOJ will have better visibility into some possible crimes than the committee.

There’s one exception to this: contempt of Congress referrals. That is the only crime referred by Congress that actually requires a DOJ response.

One common response I keep seeing: the committee needs to make referrals to our public pressure on DOJ or help the public understand they believe crimes were committed.

A couple points:

1) The committee can (and I expect they will) conclude crimes were committed in their final report. Calling it a ‘referral,’ which is not an actual recognized process, is not necessary to conclude crimes were committed.

2) Prosecutors have been clamoring for the committee’s evidence since April. They’re going to pore over every word of it and compare it to their own witness interviews to make prosecutorial judgments. Referrals don’t change that calculus

We wrote about this in April, after a federal judge ruled that Trump (and John Eastman) likely committee felony obstruction.

Some committee members/staff have worried that the breathless focus on “referrals” detracts from their actual findings. politico.com/amp/news/2022/…