Wrapping up the January 6 Committee work

[Committee Chair Bennie Thompson indicated] the committee had now turned to finalizing its report, legislative recommendations and more explosive final decisions — including whether to make criminal referrals for witness tampering, perjury or contempt of Congress.

[...]

Thompson told POLITICO the select committee will meet Friday to discuss recommendations from a subcommittee, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, about those referrals and about how to handle the five Republican lawmakers — including GOP leader Kevin McCarthy — who declined to comply with the panel’s subpoenas.

  Politico

I should hope they'd be charged with contempt.

Congress has limited power to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department, except for witnesses it holds in contempt for refusing to comply with testimony or document demands. However, referrals for perjury or witness tampering could also carry some force with prosecutors — if lawmakers can make a compelling case that a witness was criminally defiant.

[...]

Thompson declined to say whether he believed any particular witness committed perjury: “Stay tuned.”

[...]

Any criminal referrals, Thompson said, would be made to the attorney general, who could then decide whether to steer it to Special Counsel Jack Smith — who took over the Justice Department’s Donald Trump-focused Jan. 6 investigation earlier this month — or other prosecutors within the Justice Department.

[...]

At a press conference Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland reiterated the Justice Department’s interest in obtaining the select committee’s evidence and transcripts.

“We are asking for access to all of the transcripts, and that’s really all I can say right now,” Garland said in a response to a reporter’s question.

Thompson also said he expects the committee’s final report and transcripts will be a massive evidence dump that occurs during the holiday season, rather than a slow rollout. The timing of the report, he said, will depend on how long the Government Publishing Office says it will take to produce a physical copy of the report, though much of the material will be exclusively digital.

I'm looking forward to folks going through all the material and reporting tidbits that weren't covered in the hearings.

UPDATE: