If criminal referrals are made, the decision to act on them will ultimately be up to the Department of Justice. The committee aims to finish its work before the next Congress begins in January.
"We've made decisions that we will make referrals. As to how many, we've not decided," Thompson said before later clarifying, after follow-up questions from ABC News, "What we've decided is that we will probably make referrals. ... It's under consideration, but we've not decided to do it."
A criminal referral would be a notable but symbolic move as the Department of Justice can pursue investigations without them or ignore congressional referrals as it chooses. The DOJ has been separately conducting a parallel investigation into Jan. 6.
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