Politico reporter Daniel Lippman breaks down the significance of the four charges the Jan. 6 House Committee recommends for former president Donald Trump, and what could potentially happen next, whether the DOJ decides to follow those recommendations, or not. 

Politico reporter Daniel Lippman breaks down the significance of the four charges the Jan. 6 House Committee recommends for former president Donald Trump, and what could potentially happen next, whether the DOJ decides to follow those recommendations, or not.&nbsp;

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Jan. 6 Committee Recommends Charges for Trump: Here's What Happens Next

And we got some big updates for you. The january 6th committee's final meeting wrapped up with criminal referrals for former President donald trump. So here to explain what this means as political reporter Daniel lippman, thank you so much for joining us, Daniel. Now I gotta ask you that the committee recommended the doj pursued the charges against trump on these charges. Four of them insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to make false statements and conspiracy to defraud the United States. So can you break down for us? How did they come to this conclusion? Well, they were looking at all the evidence that they gathered during their investigation. They interviewed hundreds of people. They had all those public hearings. They looked at lots of documents and this is what they found. And so I think what the department justice cares about is the evidence, not about the referral themselves and they have their own investigation going. And so uh, if you look at kind of what trump did in terms of saying, hey, you guys should come to Washington for that rally and then he waited for hours to actually, you know, tell them, hey, go home and you know, not good for you to be here anymore. Uh, you know, that is was shocking to the committee and to americans and as you mentioned, it's, it's, this is sort of largely symbolic here, Daniel. Um, this is largely symbolic here, Daniel because obviously they have um, obviously they have a lot that they're sort of going through here with the Department of Justice, but just how significant is it here that members of Congress are recommending a former President of the United States to be criminally charged here. This is unprecedented. Not gonna see this for a while, hopefully. Uh and I think it's kind of speaks to the unusual nature of the trump presidency and his willingness to uh you know, go beyond the law and and not have, you know, he cared about all he cared about on that day, was trying to stay in power and he thought that these people could help him. He wanted to have a rally to try to persuade trump to change, to try to persuade Congress to change their mind. He wanted mike pence to overturn the election. Um and he met with resistance from the establishment and from the system and the system held uh you know, even at the risk of uh you know, people died in the event. Um and you know, hundreds of people have been charged who broke into the capitol. And so I think he, you know, he might have to face the music given that, you know, without him urging people to come, There would be no January six event. Well, you know, a lot of people will also say that this was a whole waste of time for this whole committee, because nothing is going to be done, no charges will actually be brought. So, do you expect the Department of Justice to actually bring these charges? Well, if there is evidence, uh and they think that's strong enough to hold off in court, then I think they will bring uh the case, and this is not something that President biden wants, he is remaining out of the investigation, This is not something that Merrick Garland is uh, you know, set out to do when he was going to become Attorney general, but it's uh you know, just like how we as journalists pursue, you know, facts, wherever they may lead. This is what the department justice is trying to do too, and so they're trying to kind of lay down a marker that this is not allowed and that there are consequences if you're trying to overturn the results of a democratically uh, in a democratic election and that, you know, this cannot stand going forward. Okay, so let's say, hypothetically speaking, they do bring these charges, what kind of timeline can we expect? So, I think, uh, you know, the investigation is kind of nearing the charging stage stage in the next couple of months, uh, that might be when they bring charges, uh, and, you know, but they want to have an airtight case, basically, but it's gonna be hard to find a jury, given that everyone has kind of made up their mind on trump. And so it's very possible that if, you know, there are a number of trump voters on that jury, uh then He would get acquitted, or if there's people who, you know, are very against Trump, then they might not even care about the strength of the evidence that they would want to convict anyways. And so that's going to be, it's almost like you kind of wish that they had taken 20 Americans and just not told about Trump and sent them to Alaska for a few years. Daniel, I mean, let's just say if Trump is found guilty here of insurrection, he would no longer be able to hold office. Do you think at all that would impact his 2020 for candidacy? Given the fact that potentially Ron de Santis could be entering into this, Mike, pence could be entering into this as well or is he still sort of teflon don that nothing has really stuck to him so far? Well, this is, you know, one of the more vulnerable points in his career in his political life because even in the White House, he wasn't facing criminal charges imminently, robert Mueller did not bring any charges. Um, and the, I think, you know, if you look at the polls, he is growing weaker by the day and uh, you know, de Santis is ahead in new Hampshire. Um, and in national polls, uh, you know, de Santis has a, has a lead and so I think that a further charges would of course rile up trump's base, but could give permission to other republicans to say, hey, you know, maybe it's biden's department of justice, but uh, he must have done something wrong if he's, uh, you know, getting charged? Just curious, do you anticipate the doj really focusing on the charges that's investigating about trump's mar a Lago documents in lieu of these recommendations. Maybe one's easier to go after than the other, I think. Um, you know, I don't know when they would, if they would announce charges on both things at once, but I think it's, it's a dual track for them, but I also have spaces charge of potential charges in Georgia. Uh, you know, due to him telling, uh, you know, trying to interfere with their electoral account. Uh, and so new york, uh, you know, that, you know, that's, that's also a case that might happen. And so I think they, you know, the National Archives is pretty, you know, he had the documents, he was not allowed to have them. He refused to give them back a lot of them. There might be more so, uh, you know, former presidents can't just take classified documents, government documents just for, you know, to have as knickknacks. And so, um, you know, they're, they want to show kind of willful intent to violate the law, uh, and, you know, they want to get every duck in a row before they charge. So with about a minute or so left here based off of the 2020 for midterm or the 2022 midterm elections that we had right now just recently. Do you think the committee, how they're going to be largely sort of, looked at here was sort of, in the sense if you were questioning the results of the election, you actually got dinged here. So in many ways, the committee actually did a good thing here. Yeah, I think the committee, uh, you know, for democrats who were um, you know, creating this committee in the first place, along with Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, they feel pretty good about their results. Um and, you know, they're releasing the report before republicans typical over next. Uh, yeah, it looks like we just lost Daniel, but I do want to thank Daniel lippman over at politico for breaking all of that down for us this morning.