Judging Freedom - Jan. 6 Panel to Vote on Criminal Referrals

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, December 19th, 2022. It's about 11.15 in the morning here on the east coast of the United States. Today, the January 6th Committee of the House of Representatives is having one of its last meetings. They may have another meeting on Wednesday, one of its last public meetings. This is not to take testimony, but this is to announce their final recommendations on the basis of the evidence they've gathered. Now, this should be no surprise to anybody, but the committee is likely to recommend that the DOJ consider criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, former congressman and former President Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, a constitutional law scholar who also advised former President Trump,

and Rudy Giuliani, the Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who also advised President Trump. What are the charges? Well, we don't know exactly what the charges are against Congressman Meadows, Professor Eastman, and Mayor Giuliani, but we know the alleged charges against the former president will be obstruction of justice by preventing a congressional meeting from happening, insurrection by provoking people to prevent Congress from meeting and defrauding the United States by preventing the federal government from having the benefit of Congress meeting. So basically the allegations are that by his behavior as president, by his speech on Capitol Hill, and then by his doing nothing to stop what happened at the Capitol, he instigated and fomented it.

Okay. What does it mean when Congress refers criminal charges? Well, to be candid, the DOJ couldn't care less what Congress's opinion of criminal charges are. First of all, the DOJ has its own investigative arm. You've heard of them, I'm sure. They're called the FBI, and they do the investigations for the DOJ. There are other less well-known investigative arms of the DOJ, so they hardly need Congress to do their work for them. Secondly, under the Constitution, thanks be to God and to James Madison, Congress cannot file criminal charges. It cannot indict. It can only recommend indictments or criminal charges to the DOJ. And that's all it is, is a recommendation. In this case, of course, Jack Smith, you've heard of him. He's the special

counsel in charge of the DOJ investigations of former President Trump. He's in charge of investigating whether or not the former president committed federal crimes by the manner in which he brought and dealt with national defense information to his home in Florida. He's also, Jack Smith, is in charge of the investigation as to whether or not the former president did anything on January 6th, where we started, which was a crime. Does the DOJ appreciate what Congress does when it makes these criminal referrals? Once in a while it does. Once in a while, the Congress may unearth some evidence that the FBI did not unearth simply because people are more willing to speak to and cooperate with Congress than

they are with the FBI. They tend to be afraid of dealing with the FBI, but they don't have the same fear of dealing with congressional investigators. Who are congressional investigators? For the most part, they're retired FBI agents that are employed by the Congress in investigatory capacities. So we'll find out later today. This will be headline news in the New York Times and the Washington Post tomorrow. But we'll find out later today exactly what the committee's evidence is and exactly what crimes it says Trump, Meadows, Eastman, and Giuliani committed. And if it's profound or significant, if I'm wrong now, if it's different from what I'm now saying, obviously I'll come back to the camera and tell you exactly what the committee said. Should Trump be happy about this? No, no, he shouldn't. This is devastating to him politically. I don't think it's devastating

legally because I don't think the committee has unearthed something that the FBI and the DOJ don't already know about. But if they have, we'll let you know. More as we get it. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.