Jan 6 committee will hold final public meeting and publish report next week, chairman says

The congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection by Donald Trump’s supporters will hold its final public meeting next week, according to its chair.

Representative Bennie Thompson says that the House select committee will hold the meeting on Monday 19 December and that its final report will be published on 21 December.

Mr Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, says that the committee will also make any announcements about criminal referrals to the Justice Department on 19 December.

“We will do all of the business of the committee on the 19th,” Mr Thompson said on Tuesday.

The committee was determined to get the report out before the end of the year with Republicans set to dissolve it when they take charge of Congress in January.

Mr Thompson told CNN that the committee is looking at five or six categories of referrals beyond criminal ones.

He said that in addition to criminal referrals there could be referrals to the House Ethics Committee, campaign finance referrals and bar discipline referrals.

During the 19 December hearing, the full committee is expected to vote on adopting recommendations made by a subcommittee.

Mr Thompson said that the meeting will detail the names of those people it considers should face criminal and any other referrals.

The congressional investigation, formally known as the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, was created after the insurrection at the US Capitol in early 2021.

It was not formally established until the summer of that year, but only because Republicans rejected a fuller, broader probe, and Nancy Pelosi was able to only recruit Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney to be part of the team.

During nine public hearings, a string of witnesses spoke about the fear they felt during the riot in which the crowd chanted “Hang Mike Pence” as he sheltered inside the US Capitol.

Mr Trump, who has announced he will run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is already being investigated by a special prosecutor appointed by the DoJ, to look into both the events of January 6, and his alleged improper storage of classified documents at his home in Florida.