January 6 Committee holds final meeting, expected to take action against Trump, allies

Post Content

The House Jan. 6 committee will hold what’s expected to be its final meeting Monday, when the panel is expected to take action against former President Trump and his allies.

The committee, which subpoenaed Trump in October, will present its final findings after a nearly 18-month probe. It is also expected to issue several criminal referrals to the Justice Department, but all eyes are on whether Trump himself will be included in the action.

“No one is really certain” what will happen, a senior GOP aide told Fox News Digital. “They subpoenaed Trump that doesn’t seem to have led to much.”

It remains unclear if the former president, who launched his 2024 White House bid last month, has cooperated with the panel’s request for information.

TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM LATEST JAN. 6 HEARING BEFORE MIDTERM ELECTIONS INCLUDE TRUMP SUBPOENA, NEW VIDEO

At Monday’s meeting, the committee’s members, seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, will each present a portion of their findings. Some will also summarize the investigation, others will focus on the alleged ties between Trump staffers and extremist groups that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

While some evidence presented is likely to be new, few believe the committee has anything close to a smoking gun implicating Trump.

REPUBLICANS PLANNING TO RELEASE OWN REPORT ON JAN. 6 SECURITY FAILINGS

That reality is something the panel is wrestling with as it holds what is likely its final meeting. Complicating the push for a clear resolution is that the panel has not heard testimony from Trump and other key players that were in the White House or Congress on Jan. 6.

Not only has Trump refused to cooperate with the panel but so have the former president’s top congressional allies. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., has defied a congressional subpoena by the committee to sit for a deposition.

“The committee operates with the same kind of bias present at the Salem witch trials,” said Biggs, who the committee alleges pressured state leaders in Arizona to decertify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. “Everyone is guilty and must demonstrate their innocence.”

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., also defied the committee’s subpoenas.

Perry is alleged by the committee to have been a key link between Trump and Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, who pushed for the DOJ to back the former president’s claim of electoral fraud in 2020. McCarthy, meanwhile, had a phone call with Trump as protesters stormed the capitol on Jan. 6.

The committee has similarly had little luck in getting senior Trump administration staff to talk.

Senior Trump White House official Peter Navarro, in particular, was indicted for contempt of Congress for defying the committee’s subpoena to testify. According to the committee, Navarro was responsible for spearheading Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Navarro has cited executive privilege as the reason for his decision to not cooperate.

Also likely missing from the committee’s meeting will be former Vice President Mike Pence. The Indiana Republican, according to the committee, was the target of heavy pressure from Trump and allies to reject Electoral College votes from certain states while presiding over the tally on Jan. 6.

Pence has said he would be open to testifying in front of the panel. However, the former vice president’s staff told Fox News Digital ahead of the midterms that no progress had been made about facilitating the testimony.

While key players in the Jan. 6 drama have been left out or refused to comply, the panel has found some success. Apart from gaining access to tens of thousands of documents, the committee has conducted nearly 1,000 interviews.

The committee is set to disband at the end of this Congress unless lawmakers vote to reauthorize it next year. That likelihood is slim given that Republicans will have control of the House.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Top Republicans are even pledging to investigate the panel’s activities once in power next year. They say the committee has lacked legitimacy from its creation, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of the Republicans nominated to serve on the panel by McCarthy.

“It’s the most political and least legitimate committee in American history,” said McCarthy at the time. “It has used congressional subpoenas to attack Republicans, violate due process and infringe on the political speech of private citizens.”