
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol postponed the release of its final report from Wednesday to Thursday.
“The Select Committee now anticipates its final report will be filed and released tomorrow,” the panel wrote in a statement on Wednesday, as quoted by The Hill.
The panel did not give a reasoning for the delay, though the announcement came hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to address a joint meeting of Congress.
On Monday, the committee sent criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, urging it to prosecute former President Donald Trump on four criminal charges related to his alleged involvement in attempts to stop the transition of power after the 2020 presidential election.
The recommendations from the committee are non-binding. They represent a symbolic move that more importantly is the first time a former president has been party to a criminal referral by Congress.
The committee’s seven Democrats and two Republicans all voted to adopt the panel’s final report and to call on the Justice Department to prosecute Trump for obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and incitement, rebellion or insurrection.
Trump responded to Monday’s announcement by saying, “These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
“The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump also said that the probes were an effort to undercut his 2024 presidential campaign. The insurrection charge could bar Trump from running for elected office again.
“The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party,” the former President said.
Trump has long insisted that he did not break the law on January 6, calling the committee’s investigation into his actions politically motivated and a “one-sided witch hunt."