Jan. 6 committee eyes referrals to FEC

The chair of the Jan. 6 select committee on Thursday said the panel may make referrals to agencies other than the Justice Department, citing the Federal Election Commission as a potential recipient.

Why it matters: In the panel's second public hearing, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) highlighted Trump campaign fundraising emails that allegedly falsely claimed to be for an "election defense fund," but instead went to Trump's political groups.

• Lofgren said at the time Trump "intentionally misled his donors, asked them to donate to a fund that didn't exist and used the money raised for something other than what he said," but added "it's for someone else to decide whether that's criminal or not."

What they're saying: "I think we will still make referrals [to the DOJ] if they warrant. But, you know, we could be making referrals to other agencies that are not criminal in nature," Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said Thursday.

• "FEC would be a good possibility, because obviously we looked seriously at some of the fundraising that went on around Jan. 6."
• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said the committee's final report aims to "be comprehensive in setting forth both the kinds of violations we saw, and the kinds of things we think should be legal violations, but ... are not."