Republican congressman suggests he could support Trump facing criminal charges

Nebraska congressman voted against second impeachment of Trump

Don Bacon, left, outside of the US Capitol (Getty Images)

A Republican congressman has suggested that he would be open to supporting a referral to the Justice Department urging the agency to pursue criminal charges against Donald Trump, in what may be one of the first signs that the January 6 committee’s evidence is breaking through to Republicans.

Rep Don Bacon was being interviewed on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday when anchor Chuck Todd asked him plainly if he was open to supporting criminal charges against the former president. The House cannot charge the president directly, but can make a formal recommendation to the Justice Department to do so, as it has in the case of contempt charges for several witnesses who have defied subpoenas from the January 6 committee.

“I look at it this way: He has already left, I think we should be looking more forward on this, but we’ll see what the evidence comes out with in regards to the president,” said Mr Bacon.

“I’ll just say: What he did was wrong, he should have spoke up. When it gets to the legal matter, I’m a little less confident on it. I’m not a lawyer,” added the congressman.

He also added that no matter what the committee came up with in future hearings, he wouldn’t support Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. The congressman did not, however, say how he would vote in a general election.

Mr Bacon’s remarks are notable because he was not one of the 10 House Republicans who supported the second impeachment of Mr Trump, which took place in 2021. That effort ended in a second acquittal for Mr Trump in the Senate but notably resulted in the most bipartisan impeachment votes in US history.

The January 6 committee outlined new evidence that Mr Trump pursued provably false claims of voter and election fraud after the 2020 election in the face of resistance from his own advisers and aides including Ivanka Trump, his daughter. The panel plans in the days ahead to further detail how the president drove massive numbers of his supporters to Washington on the day of the January 6 attack itself and did little if anything to protect Congress during the siege itself.

Monday morning is the committee’s next hearing date. Former Fox News anchor Chris Stirewalt is the only announced witness so far.

Polls have shown that clear majorities of Democrats and independents oppose Donald Trump running for office again and viewed the January 6 attack as a clear threat to US democracy.