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A former Republican congressman believes that the “end is near” for former President Donald Trump as criminal referrals from the January 6 House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot looms.
Carlos Curbelo is a former GOP member of the House of Representatives, having represented Florida’s 26th District from 2015 to 2019. He now occasionally appears as a political analyst for MSNBC, as he did on Sunday morning, discussing the possible criminal referral of Trump with host Katie Phang of The Katie Phang Show.
Despite being among the ranks of conservatives opposed to Trump, Curbelo said that he actually opposes the idea of the select committee issuing a criminal referral for the former president’s part in last year’s insurrection. According to the former congressman, Trump is already flailing politically, and a congressional referral could be seen as a politicized attack that he could use to rally support from his base.
“I actually think a congressional referral could politicize this process a little a bit,” Curbelo said. “Donald Trump is in deep trouble. I don’t think anything can rescue him. I do think that he can use these criminal referrals as a way to rally his base, but the end is near for Donald Trump. His next bankruptcy is looming, you can see it coming on the horizon, and I don’t even think this would save him.”
The select committee investigating the riot will hold its final public hearing on Monday, during which its members will report on criminal referrals it will make to the Department of Justice (DOJ) based on its findings. On Tuesday, committee chair Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said that they have decided to issue referrals, but had not yet decided precisely who would get them and for which charges.
While nothing has been made official, it is heavily expected that the committee will issue some referrals for Trump, for his part in orchestrating the events that led to the riot. Such a hypothetical move by the committee could hold serious weight, according to one expert.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
“Although the DOJ is independent, such a referral is more than symbolic,” Ion Meyn, an assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin, previously told Newsweek in a statement. “A referral from a congressional committee that has conducted its own investigation is particularly influential. The referral would place significant pressure on the DOJ to prosecute, and the DOJ will be expected to justify any decision to decline the referral.”
The DOJ has yet to bring any charges against Trump, though it is conducting two probes against him for his involvement in January 6 and his handling of classified documents that he kept at Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House early last year. In regards to the documents, Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said that any classified documents that he took had already been declassified.
Meanwhile, a special counsel, Jack Smith, has been appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee cases against Trump.
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Trump for comment.
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