First, the January 6 committee announced it will be making criminal referrals to the Justice Department after winding down its investigation into the Trump-incited insurrection on the U.S. Capitol that happened two years ago next month. Then, the embattled ex-president’s family business lost a criminal tax fraud lawsuit in New York. And then, Herschel Walker, who Trump hand-picked to run for U.S. Senate in Georgia despite being wholly unqualified, lost in the runoff election against incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Phew! That was a lot.
OK, now let’s unpack it all…
The January 6 Committee...
Yesterday morning, Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the committee, told reporters that the panel would, in fact, be making criminal referrals to the Justice Department, though he stopped short of saying who might be referred.
CNN later reported that Trump’s name was among those being considered:
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack is weighing criminal referrals for former President Donald Trump and a number of his closest allies, multiple sources tell CNN.
The sources would not elaborate on who besides Trump is being considered.
Criminal referrals would largely be symbolic in nature. The committee lacks prosecutorial powers, and the Justice Department does not need a referral from Congress to investigate crimes as it has its own criminal investigations into the Capitol attack ongoing.
Committee members met yesterday to put together the final list, although it has yet to be finalized. A source also told CNN that the referrals ultimately “will be focused on the main organizers and leaders of the attacks.”
The Trump Organization...
Trump’s lawyers say they plan to appeal the verdict. The ex-president himself said on Truth Social that he was “disappointed” by the trial’s outcome then, in typical Trump fashion, pinned all the blame on his company’s longtime CFO, Allen H. Weisselberg, and once again said he was the target of a “witch hunt.”
“New York City is a hard place to be ‘Trump,’ as businesses and people flee our once Great City!” he ranted.
The Trump Organization faces a maximum penalty of $1.61 million in fines. Sentencing is scheduled for mid-January.
The Georgia Runoff...
Meanwhile, as all that was unfolding, voters in Georgia were casting their ballots in the runoff election between Warnock and Walker. Ultimately, Warnock retained his seat by winning 51.4% of the vote.
Trump plucked Walker out of nowhere and dropped him into the race. Even though Walker ran better than the late polling, he still lost. Worse, he was the only Republican to lose a statewide race in Georgia — from governor to labor commissioner.
Since taking much of the heat for the poor GOP performance in the mid-terms, things have gone from bad to worse for Trump. At every turn he’s making the wrong moves, losing in court, losing at the ballot box and generally self-destructing.
Warnock’s victory means Democrats now have a 51-seat majority in the Senate.
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