January 6 committee expected to recommend Donald Trump faces at least 3 criminal charges, including insurrection, reports say

• The January 6 select committee is expected to criminally refer Donald Trump to the DOJ, The Guardian reported.
• There could be three recommended criminal charges, including insurrection, per reports.
• Referrals from Congress technically have no legal weight but could nonetheless be influential to the DOJ criminal probe.

The House January 6 select committee is expected in the coming week to recommend criminal charges, including insurrection, against former President Donald Trump, according to reports.

The panel, which is expected to publish a final report in full on Wednesday, will vote on Monday on urging the Justice Department to pursue the charges against Trump, which relate to the deadly riot on January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol, Politico reported. 

The final report, based on the findings of a four-member subcommittee, will recommend that Trump is charged with insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the US government, Politico said, citing two people familiar with its content. CNN also reported this, citing a source familiar with the matter.

The select committee could also pursue additional criminal referrals, The Guardian, the first to report the story, said. The newspaper noted that discussions were still underway on Thursday.

The committee's chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson told reporters that the panel could also issue other types of referrals, including ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, CNN reported.

The nine-person select committee is expected to approve the eight-chapter report at its final public meeting on Monday and submit it to the Justice Department, per BBC News.

Referrals from Congress technically have no legal weight and the Justice Department is not required to consider them, making them largely symbolic, Politico reported.

However, Politico said that lawmakers hope the referrals can influence the Justice Department's ongoing investigation into the Capitol riot, putting pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to seek charges against the former president.

Last month, Garland appointed Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor, to oversee criminal investigations involving Trump.

The panel's full report includes justifications for the recommended criminal charges, according to reports. Insider previously reported on the evidence gathered by the panel that might show Trump broke several federal laws.

On Friday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a committee member, told CNN's Jake Tapper that the panel has "been very careful in crafting these recommendations and tethering them to the facts that we've uncovered."

In a statement to several media outlets on Friday, Trump's spokesperson said: "The January 6th un-Select Committee held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country's history. 

"This Kangaroo court has been nothing more than a Hollywood executive's vanity documentary project that insults Americans' intelligence and makes a mockery of our democracy."