Trump shrugs off Jan. 6 panel’s criminal referral: ‘What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger’

Former President Donald Trump brushed off the House Jan. 6 committee’s referral to the Department of Justice that he face criminal charges for his actions leading up to the 2021 Capitol riot. 

“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me.  It strengthens me.  What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” Trump wrote in a statement posted on his Truth Social account. 

“Americans know that I pushed for 20,000 troops to prevent violence on Jan 6, and that I went on television and told everyone to go home….” the 76-year-old former commander-in-chief added. 

Trump compared the bipartisan panel’s criminal referral Monday to the article of impeachment brought against him by Congress — twice — during his presidency. 

“The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party,” Trump wrote.

The House select committee investigating events of Jan. 6 recommended to the DOJ that Trump be charged with inciting or assisting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to make false statements to investigators, and conspiracy to defraud the US government. The panel had said it uncovered evidence Trump pushed claims he knew were false about the 2020 presidential election in an effort to change the election’s outcome. 

Trump suggested the House’s second impeachment against him means he can’t be charged for the crimes the panel has accused him of — citing “Double Jeopardy.” 

“The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!” he wrote.

The former president previously floated the unfounded legal theory in November, two days after announcing the launch of his 2024 White House campaign.

While the panel’s referral is largely symbolic, the committee’s probe and recommendation of charges can be used by the DOJ to pursue a case against Trump, who so far is the only person to announce his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.