If the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol riot chooses to issue criminal referrals, it could be a signal to the Department of Justice to focus their federal investigation on certain alleged crimes, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
Driving the news: The panel's chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), told reporters last week that the committee was still working to decide who might be referred and for what alleged crimes.
- The Jan. 6 committee plans to release its final report on Dec. 21.
What they're saying: "What you will see with this report and everything included is a fulsome picture," Kinzinger said, adding that "this is all about telling the American people about what happened."
- "It's very clear that DOJ has decided to take this effort up," he added, referring to the Department of Justice.
- "The criminal referrals themselves aren’t necessarily something that is going to wake [the] DOJ up to something they didn't know before," he said.
- "But I do think it will be an important symbolic thing that the committee can do — or even more than symbolic, just very clear that Congress thinks, you know, a crime has been committed here and the DOJ should investigate it."
