House Jan. 6 Select Committee Chair Rep. Bernie Thompson, D-Miss., said Tuesday the panel will make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
The committee, created by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to investigate events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, met Friday to discuss its final report as well as the possibility of making criminal referrals, CNN reported.
"We have made decisions on criminal referrals," Thompson told reporters Tuesday, the Washington Examiner reported.
When asked whether the committee will pursue criminal referrals, he said: "We will."
Thompson did not provide further details, the Examiner said.
CNN reported that panel members on Friday planned to discuss how to handle the five Republican lawmakers who refused to cooperate with their subpoenas. Those members included House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
"We will be discussing whether to make referrals, and if so on whom and for what," committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told CNN. "We are considering any offenses for which we have uncovered relevant evidence and think there is a basis for a referral."
Schiff said referrals could extend beyond former President Donald Trump.
Thompson last week told reporters that the department needed to wait for the final report to be released in late December to access transcripts of more than 1,000 interviewed witnesses.
The select committee is comprised of Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.
The Washington Post reported late last month that Cheney, who angered many Republicans by sitting on the committee, has rankled the panel's Democrat members.
Cheney, vice chair of the committee, reportedly upset Democrats by pushing to focus the panel’s final report primarily on Trump.
Members also see Cheney trying to use the committee as the vehicle for her political future, the Post reported.
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