The House panel is looking into the attack on the U.S. Capitol in January of 2021.
Lawmakers recommended charges against Trump for obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and efforts to aid or an insurrection.
The criminal referrals were sent to the Justice Department by unanimous vote. The referrals, which mark the first time that the House has recommended criminal charges against a former president, do not guarantee that Trump will be indicted, but they do add to the evidence being weighed by the Justice Department and special counsel.
The members of the panel argued that there was enough evidence for federal prosecutors to win a conviction against Trump.
This is not a defense even if it was true that the election was stolen. The House investigators wrote in a section of their report that a president can't ignore the courts and violate the law.
The ethics committee should investigate colleagues who ignored congressional subpoenas, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Trump attacked the House lawmakers in posts to his social media platform.
The Unselect Committee of political hacks are the same group that came up with the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA. He said they are corrupt and hate the country.
Trump didn't directly address the report's findings, including the core tenet that he wentaded his followers to action but didn't join them himself, but he did repeat his claims that the 2020 election was "rigged and stolen."
The criminal referrals mark the end of an 18-month investigation by the House select committee. The release comes just days before House Republicans, many of whom worked with Trump, take power as a result of the November elections.
In a 161-page section of the panel's larger report, which is expected to be released publicly later this week, lawmakers wrote that Trump impeded an official proceeding of Congress with his repeated efforts to delay or deny the counting of the electoral votes.
The lawmakers wrote that Trump committed a "conspiracy to defraud the United States" when he offered to make Jeffrey Clark acting attorney general if Clark agreed to help him push the fake electors scheme.
They said that Trump was involved in a conspiracy to make a false statement when he encouraged others to submit fake electors to Congress.
For the fourth criminal referral, they wrote that Trump wanted to help or aid an insurrection. The lawmakers wrote that President Trump was responsible for sending a violent mob to Washington, D.C., urging them to march to the Capitol, and then further provoking that already violent and lawless crowd.
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