Trump Jan. 6 Actions a 'Pretty Good Match' to Insurrection Statute: Schiff

A prominent member of the House select committee investigating last year's Capitol riot said that former President Donald Trump's actions are a "pretty good match" for the United States' insurrection statutes.

Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, is one of the six Democrats that make up the eight-person committee. The group will hold its final public hearing Monday to vote on criminal referrals based on its findings about how last year's Capitol riot happened. Trump is widely expected to be a target of those referrals, with sources telling Politico that the committee will vote to refer the former president for charges of insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. Any referrals approved during the hearing will be sent to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which is already probing Trump's involvement with the riot.

Schiff appeared on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday where host Jake Tapper pressed him about whether or not he believes that Trump's actions warrant the reported charges and if he will be voting in favor of them. While stressing that he could not comment on the committee's intentions, Schiff said that, in his view, Trump's actions very much seemed to fit the bill for criminal charges.

"This is someone who, in multiple ways, tried to pressure state officials to find votes that didn't exist," Schiff said. "This is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol. If that's not criminal, then I don't know what is."

Schiff added that the committee would not be considering criminal referrals for every individual against whom they have found evidence. Instead, it will be going after those they have the most and the strongest evidence against.

Schiff said that he did not want to say too much on how he intends to vote Monday, but added that Trump "violated multiple criminals laws" and that "he ought to be treated like any other American who breaks the law, and that is you ought to be prosecuted."

The congressman further explained the various mechanisms by which a president could be held accountable for insurrection, including impeachment, the 14th Amendment, or criminal charges.

"If you look at Donald Trump's acts and you match them up against the statute [for insurrection], it's a pretty good match," Schiff said. "I realize that statute hasn't been used in a really long time, but then, when have we had a president essentially incite an attack on his own government?"

So far, no individuals have been hit with insurrection charges in relation to the Capitol riot. As Tapper noted in the interview with Schiff, among the most serious charges that were leveled have been against members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group, who were charged with seditious conspiracy.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's representatives for comment.