In what is considered a historic move, the Jan. 6 select House committee this week voted to send a criminal referral to the U.S. Department of Justice concerning former President Donald Trump and the role the committee believed he played in sparking the Capitol incursion on Jan. 6, 2021.
According to CNBC, in a unanimous vote Monday, the committee determined that it believes ample evidence exists for an investigation and potential criminal action against the former president for āobstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government, making knowingly and willfully materially false statements to the federal government, and inciting or assisting an insurrection.ā
However, it appears that reasonable people on both sides of the political aisle believe the criminal referral isnāt worth the paper it was written on.
Michael Tracey, a left-leaning writer, wrote a lengthy Twitter thread regarding why he believes the committeeās referral to the DOJ isnāt what many believe it to be.Ā And he didnāt hold anything back in the process.
āWhatās being called a ācriminal referralā by the Jan 6 committee carries just as much legal weight as a letter written in magic marker by Bozo the Clown. Has no basis at all in any statute or House rule, they just put out a Word document and made up a serious-sounding name for it,ā Traceyās tweet thread began.
āThey didnāt even attempt to invoke the one statutory authority they do potentially have at their disposal, the criminal contempt statute (2 USC Ā§ 194). So they just wrote their equivalent of a long Substack screed, and hoped the phrase ācriminal referralā would get people excited,ā Tracey continued.
Tracey nailed it with the last part, because many in the establishment media and the left loved the idea of big, bad Trump facing the possibility of landing in criminal trouble, as opposed to the relentless civil actions taken against him and his organization.
Anti-Trump politicians and their allies in the establishment media have unsuccessfully tried for more than six years to find a way to nail Trump into facing any criminal consequences.
Given how long the Jan. 6 select House committee has been in the works, not to mention the level of resources dedicated to its existence, it was predictable that it would end this way, even if the āevidenceā was weak.
āMedia trumpeting how this was the first ācriminal referralā of a president in US history neglects to emphasize that the very manner of the āreferralā is a whole-cloth invention of the Cheney/Schiff gang. So yeah itās technically true that nobody invented this fake action before,ā Tracey wrote.
Tracey went on to write that a special committee could mail a letter to the Department of Justice with a criminal referral of Kermit the Frog, and that would also be the first such criminal referral of its kind, but again, itās not worth its weight.
Coming from one of the leftās own, thatās quite the unexpected but necessary reality check.
Tracey also explained that Congress doesnāt have the ācriminal referralā power that the media would like its audience to believe.
āThis item and countless others give the impression that Congress has had a formal ācriminal referralā power at its disposal since 1789, but was just never moved to use it till now. In reality, no such power exists, which is why the committee ā including GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming ā invented this āinformalā (fake) power,ā he tweeted.
In a follow-up tweet, Tracey clarified that the resolution that allowed the Jan. 6 committee to form in the first place only gave it the power to produce a final report on the matter that contained āfindings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures.ā
Anything other than a final report, including a ācriminal referral,ā is simply another act of Kabuki theater produced by anti-Trump actors desperately hoping to make headlines and appease their rabid, anti-Trump base.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.