The January 6 Select Committee unanimously voted Monday to refer former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice on four criminal charges, prompting a gut check by conservatives.
SO WHAT
Are the “walls finally closing in” on Trump?
THE TAKES
Conservatives pundits were divided on the significance of the criminal referrals — for obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to make a false statement and incitement of an insurrection — by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
HE’S GOING DOWN: Podcast host Jesse Kelly, a hardline conservative respected by the “MAGA” crowd, predicted Monday that Trump would be indicted and placed in handcuffs “on television.”
“I am not saying this to bring you down. I am saying this to prepare you for that shock,” Kelly said during a segment of his “I’m Right” show, adding that the “fully weaponized federal government” is targeting Trump because he “tried to upset the apple cart.”
IT’S ALL FOR SHOW: National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, a Trump critic and former federal prosecutor, argued in a Tuesday analysis that the Jan. 6 committee’s criminal referrals are “at best, meaningless.”
Never mind the fact that “such referrals are nonbinding and generally ignored by the Justice Department,” the committee has failed to provide a “criminally actionable nexus between Trump and the violence,” McCarthy wrote.
- “The anti-Trumpers of the January 6 committee would like to see Donald Trump be indicted. They would also like to be perceived as having caused Trump’s indictment, credit they’ll now claim if Trump gets charged after their referrals. But the blunt fact is that the committee’s referrals will have no bearing on whether the Justice Department decides to charge Trump. If the referrals have any relevance, it will be as Exhibit A in Trump’s defense that any indictment is sheer partisan politics.”
THE KICKER
However the latest controversy plays out, it’s hard to deny Trump is having a bad time.
- Last week, a federal judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit challenging the FBI’s seizure of documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
- Earlier this month, the Trump Organization, the former president’s family business, was found guilty by a New York jury of multiple criminal tax fraud charges.
- Meanwhile, the kickoff of Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign has been bumpy and polls have shown him losing support among GOP faithful.