Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., stated on Sunday that he believes the Justice Department will charge former President Donald Trump after the House Judiciary Committee completed its investigation into his pressure campaign to overturn the election on January 6.
“If this is not a crime, I don’t know what is. If a president can incite an insurrection and not be held accountable, then really there’s no limit to what a president can do or can’t do,” Kinzinger, a member of the committee, said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I think the Justice Department will do the right thing. I think he will be charged, and I frankly think he should be,” he added, referring to the committee’s formal report from its 18-month investigation into the deadly Capitol riot in 2021.
Kinzinger believes Trump should be charged and convicted based on the evidence uncovered by the committee.
“If he is not guilty of a crime, then I frankly fear for the future of this country, because now every future president of this country can say here’s the bar — do everything you can to stay in power,” he added.
Kinzinger, who decided not to run for re-election, was one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee. When Republicans take control of the House in the new Congress, the panel will be disbanded.
The committee issued its final report, spanning over 800 pages, late last month, following a final public meeting in which all nine members voted to recommend that the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Trump if he runs for president again in 2024.
The full report details the committee’s arguments, which largely blame the Jan. 6 attack on Trump and his false claims of widespread election fraud.
Trump has repeatedly accused the committee of being partisan in its agenda. At the time of the criminal referrals, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung reiterated a previous campaign statement, calling the panel a “Kangaroo court” that “held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history.”
