January 6 committee chairman: Final public meeting will be Monday and full report will come out December 21

By Annie Grayer, Sara Murray and Zachary Cohen, CNN

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, told reporters the committee will hold its final public meeting on Monday and that the panel’s full report will come out December 21.

Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said the committee will approve the panel’s final report on December 19 and make announcements about criminal referrals to the Justice Department, but the public will not see the final report until two days later.

“We will do all of the business of the committee on the 19th,” Thompson said, which includes voting on the final report.

Members of the committee have promised to have the committee’s report released before the end of the year, as Republicans are expected to dissolve the committee when they take over the chamber in the next Congress.

Thompson told CNN that the panel is looking at five to six categories of referrals beyond those deemed criminal, but has not decided on the specific number of individuals.

Thompson said that in addition to criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, there could be other categories of referrals the committee makes such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.

Thompson said that when members met on Sunday they did not talk about the number of criminal referrals they talked about the different categories of referrals they wanted to pursue.

Thompson told reporters on Tuesday that Monday’s public meeting will include a presentation and cover the names of people facing criminal and other referrals, as will as the basis for those referrals.

A subcommittee of members has made recommendations to the full committee about various referrals. During the public meeting, the full committee is expected to vote on adopting the subcommittee’s recommendations.

Asked about the committee’s plans to hold a public meeting on Monday, Thompson said: “We looked at the schedule and it appears we can complete our work a little bit before that,” Thompson said of shifting the public meeting earlier next week. “So why not get it to the public?”

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