The House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack is now investigating whether or not Donald Trump can be charged as the head of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the presidential election. As The Guardian notes, the “committee’s new focus on the potential for a conspiracy marks an aggressive escalation in its inquiry.” It means that the committee could submit to the Department of Justice a referral for criminal charges against Trump.

Jan. 6, 2021 was the culmination of two connected attempts to overthrow the lawful government of the Untied States. One of these was a deadly insurgency that injured 140 police officers as it swarmed into the U.S. Capitol building, in an attempt to capture and kill legislators and Vice President Mike Pence. The other was a internal coup which involved state and federal officials, in an effort to misrepresent the results of the 2020 election and refuse to honor the will of the people. 

Both of these attempts targeted the same event: the certification of electoral college votes that showed Joe Biden had won an overwhelming victory. As of January 2022, at least 727 people have been indicted for their role in the first of these efforts, and over 300 more are being sought by law enforcement. In the second of these plots—the one where Trump conducted an outreach to state and county election officials, governors, secretaries of state, state legislators, and Republican members of Congress in an effort to recruit them into an attempt coup—exactly zero people have so far been charged.

The fate of the nation hangs on the hope that will change.

The Guardian reports that interest in Trump’s role in a criminal conspiracy was increased after the select committee received documents from former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Even though Meadows has refused to testify, and is still withholding some documents under a spurious claim of executive privilege, what the committee did receive was enough to connect the dots on several already-known fragments of Trump’s scheme.

Specifically, some documents feature Trump’s efforts to brief members of Congress on their proposed role in halting the count of the electoral votes. The efforts to recruit other Republicans into this plot, and instruct them on how to act in order to cause a breakdown of the electoral process, may be all that the committee needs to show that Trump was the leader of a criminal conspiracy.

As a reminder, Trump also:

Directly contacted local election officials in Wayne County, Michigan, in an attempt to<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/19/1996849/-Michigan-s-racist-Republicans-election-officials-now-want-to-un-certify-the-election-results"> get them to overturn certification </a>of votes in that area;
<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/19/1996963/-Fascism-is-here-Trump-to-meet-with-Michigan-Republicans-to-plot-nullifying-of-election-results">Summoned Michigan state legislators</a> to Washington, D.C., in an effort to get them to interfere with the election at the state level;
Called on Republican legislators in Wisconsin to <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/11/19/wisconsin-gop-leader-rejects-trump-backed-call-decertify-election/8668447002/">“decertify” the election results</a>; 
Made repeated calls to the state attorney general in Georgia and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2001195">threatened him with unspecified charges</a> if he didn’t “find” just enough votes to give Trump the victory in that state;
Tried to push a U.S. attorney in Georgia into helping him push around state officials, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/22/2011226/-DOJ-investigating-U-S-attorney-pressured-to-resign-during-Trump-s-attempt-to-overturn-Georgia-votes">resulting in the resignation of that attorney</a>;
Not only tried to pressure Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp into overturning the presidential results, but <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/1/1999221/-Trump-tells-GA-Gov-Kemp-to-call-off-election-because-it-won-t-be-needed">told him to call off the state’s Senate election</a>;
Attempted to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/7/2/2038126/--We-need-you-to-stop-the-counting-AZCentral-details-Trump-s-urgent-bid-to-change-Maricopa-results">halt vote-counting in Maricopa County, Arizona</a>, before that state could certify Biden’s victory;
<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/561420-white-house-operator-trump-allies-left-calls-for-election-supervisors-in?rl=1">Called election supervisors in Arizona</a> to pressure them into changing the election results;
Tried to<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-arizona-elections-doug-ducey-e2b8b0de5b809efcc9b1ad5d279023f4"> call Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey</a> to halt the certification of votes—right in the middle of the ceremony where Ducey was signing off on the election results;
Supported a scheme to<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/22/2011305/-Trump-plotted-to-toss-the-acting-attorney-general-insert-a-stooge-and-block-the-electoral-count"> throw out his own attorney general </a>and replace him with a stooge who would use the Department of Justice to oppose certifying the election;
<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/19/2003084/-Flynn-and-Powell-came-to-White-House-to-convince-Trump-to-move-forward-with-the-coup">Invited Michael Flynn into the White House</a> to outline a plan that involved throwing out the election and using the military to “supervise” a new election; and
Gave Sidney Powell a security clearance to allow her to better interfere in certifying election results.

That’s a far from complete list. But it should serve as a reminder that the criminal conspiracy headed by Donald Trump did not begin, nor end, with the attempt to recruit Republican legislators into the scheme.

The select committee is also considering charges of obstruction against Trump, for his failure to take action to stop that other thing that happened on Jan. 6 — the whole violent insurgency thing. There is absolutely no doubt that, on that day, everyone understood exactly who was behind the violence. That’s why everyone, including Fox News propagandists and hard core Trump supporters in Congress, called and texted Trump, begging him to make it stop. Not one of them issued a call to antifa or BLM.

Interference in a U.S. election is illegal. Interference in counting the electoral votes is illegal. Donald Trump clearly engaged in a extensive criminal conspiracy to interfere in the process at every step—from counting the votes in local districts to certifying the votes at the state level, and from sending electors to Washington to the certification of the electoral votes. More documentation and testimony would help to establish this, but it isn’t necessary.

The real question, of course, isn’t whether the select committee sends a referral. It’s what the DOJ will do when they receive it.