Constitutional law attorney Ameer Benno told Newsmax Monday that he isn't surprised by the House Jan. 6 committee's decision to refer former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
"It's not a surprise to anybody who's been following this that this is what the committee was going to do," Benno said during an appearance on Newsmax's "American Agenda." "What I did find most interesting about this is that any committee, whether it's a select committee or a permanent committee, is required to have a valid legislative purpose."
"They didn't focus this last hearing on talking about what kind of legislative suggestions they would make – maybe making reforms to the Electoral Count Act, things that might prevent a situation like this from unfolding in the future," he continued. "Instead, they talked about criminal referrals to the Department of Justice and one of the things that a congressional committee doesn't have the power to do is to exist primarily or exclusively as an executive criminal investigatory body, and that's what this was."
"This, ultimately, is the culmination of their months is making a referral on criminal counts to the Department of Justice, which just supports the idea that that is the whole reason for their existence, which is not a valid legislative purpose at all," he added.
The House select committee voted unanimously Monday to refer Trump to the Justice Department, saying there is sufficient evidence to refer the 45th president for four crimes: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government, making knowingly and willfully materially false statements to the federal government and inciting or assisting an insurrection.
"I think it's very tenuous legally," Benno said, of the insurrection charge. "There are three grounds that you could charge somebody: Either you engaged in insurrection yourself, you provided aid or comfort to the individuals who engaged in insurrection or you incited interaction. They're not going forward with those first two theories so they're going forward on incitement."
"But the incitement theory runs up against the First Amendment and whether or not Donald Trump had a First Amendment right to say the things that he said," he continued. "I think that's a very strong defense and one that I think the Department of Justice is going to be hard pressed to get around."
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