PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: December 6, 2022
Washington, DC – Today, Norm Eisen, expert on law, ethics, and anti-corruption, Debra Perlin, Policy Director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and Leslie Dach, co-chair of Defend Democracy Project, joined a virtual press briefing hosted by Defend Democracy Project to discuss the news that the January 6th Committee is planning on sending criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
Throughout the past year, the bipartisan House Select Committee investigating the events surrounding January 6th has been collecting information and details regarding what Donald Trump knew, when he knew it, and other substantial evidence of criminal activity conducted by him and his team, all in an attempt to undo the results of a fair and free election, overturn the will of the people, and incite a violent attack on the Capitol.
“There are strong indications that the committee will be voting to make criminal referrals,” said Former Ambassador Norman Eisen, legal scholar, and counsel in the first impeachment and trial of former President Donald Trump. “That became increasingly clear over the course of the committee’s nine hearings, as the evidence of federal and state criminality accumulated. Election denial tends to slide down the slippery slope to illegality, as we also saw in the just-concluded election cycle. Unless the election deniers and the lawyers who make their activities possible are held accountable – including criminal accountability – it will never stop.”
“The fact that they’re making criminal referrals shows me that these are serious legal thinkers who believe that the threshold has been met and believe that prosecution is required,” said Debra Perlin, Policy Director, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Releasing the information they have amassed will help not just the prosecutors, but it will also help ensure that our democracy is protected moving forward and that there is accountability […] for everybody who tried to undermine our democracy.”
“This is a very important and unprecedented move,” said Defend Democracy Project co-chair, Leslie Dach. “It will be a challenge for most Republicans and election deniers who have refused to condemn the former President for any of his actions – for his antisemitic remarks, for his saying that the Constitution doesn’t count, and for trying to overturn an election he knew he lost. This is a momentous moment in our history.”
Watch the full briefing here.
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