THE TIGHTENING NOOSE:

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House Jan. 6 committee and a constitutional law expert, said Tuesday there's been "semantic confusion from the beginning" about the panel's authority to issue criminal referrals.

Why it matters: The committee has already laid out its view in court filings that former President Trump engaged in a "criminal conspiracy" to prevent Congress from certifying President Biden's election victory.

But Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) surprised reporters on Monday when he declared the committee wouldn't send criminal referrals to the Justice Department, saying it's "not our job."

Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and other members later clarified that the committee "has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals," and Raskin himself said the decision likely wouldn't be made until the panel's final report comes out later this year.

Driving the news: "I, speaking as one member, have no doubt that there are" federal crimes that will feature in the final report, Raskin told Axios and others on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

"I'm not trying to be coy here," Raskin said. "If there's evidence of crimes that we think is relevant to our investigation, we will put it out there. But there's not a separate process for making criminal referrals to the Department of Justice."

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