Video of former President Donald Trump is played during a hearing by the Select Committee in Washington, DC, on June 13, 2022.
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Jan 6. committee members Schiff and Cheney spoke about the Capitol riot investigation on Sunday.
They said they both believed Donald Trump committed wrongdoing.
But they said the panel will give a unanimous verdict either way when it decides whether to refer Trump for prosecution.
Two of the most senior members of the House Jan. 6 committee said they believe Donald Trump committed wrongdoing in relation to the riot, but said that the committee will act unanimously when it decides whether or not to refer the former president for prosecution.
Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democratic member of the committee; and Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, discussed the investigation in separate interviews over the weekend. The panel is due to resume its public hearings on Wednesday.
Schiff said that he will make his decision align with the rest of the committee so that the committee acts unanimously, even though he believes Trump should be referred.
“We operate with a high degree of consensus and unanimity,” Schiff told CNN’s Jake Tapper on ‘State of the Union’ Sunday. “It will be certainly, I think, my recommendation, my feeling, that we should make referrals, but we will get to a decision as a committee, and we will all abide by that decision, and I will join our committee members if they feel differently.
“I do agree there have been several laws broken and it is, I think, apparent that there is evidence that Donald Trump was involved in breaking several of those laws,” Schiff continued.
“When Congress does find evidence that people have broken the law, it is not always the case that it makes a referral, but in circumstances like these, I think that’s the better part of the argument.”
In an interview with the Texas Tribune, Rep. Liz Cheney expressed the same sentiment.
Cheney, who has been ousted from her Wyoming congressional seat over her participation in the investigation, said that Trump had been closely involved in the plot to overturn the 2020 election, and that she believed that whatever verdict the panel reached it’d be unanimous.
“One of the things that has surprised me the most about my work on this committee is how sophisticated the plan was that Donald Trump was involved in and oversaw every step of the way,” Cheney said. “It was a multipart plan that he oversaw, he was involved in personally and directly.”
She said she anticipated a unanimous decision from the panel, whatever conclusions it arrived at.
“I think we will be unanimous,” she said. “In whatever action we take, we will be unanimous.”
When the committee concludes its investigation, which was launched more than a year ago, it will decide whether or not to refer Trump for prosecution by the Justice Department. It is expected to do so before the November midterms, Reuters reported.
The DOJ is conducting its own, separate investigation into the riot, which has recently touched on Trump’s inner circle of aides.
The committee held dramatic public hearings over the summer, where it heard how Trump for months after his 2020 election defeat pushed baseless claims that that victory had been stolen from despite the fact he knew, or ought to have known, that his claims were false.
A former White House aide described how he sought to lead a mob to the Capitol he knew to be armed, and watched the violence unfold on television when he returned to the White House, resisting the entreaties of allies to try and quell the unrest.
Committee members have previously given mixed signals about whether Trump will be referred for prosecution, with Rep. Bennie Thompson’s saying in June that the panel would not refer the former president for prosecution. He met with resistance from other committee members.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in relation to the riot, but has also lauded the rioters and said he would be open to pardoning those convicted over their role in the riot of he is re-elected as president.