Updated 8.45pm
The House panel that investigated last year's attack on the US Capitol recommended on Monday that criminal charges be filed against former president Donald Trump.
The committee unanimously recommended that the Justice Department charge Trump with inciting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the US government and making false statements.
"The committee has developed significant evidence that president Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transition of power under our Constitution," Representative Jamie Raskin said as he outlined the panel's findings.
"We believe that the evidence described by my colleagues today, and assembled throughout our hearings, warrants a criminal referral of former President Donald J. Trump," Raskin said.
A protester sits in the Senate Chamber on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. File photo: AFP'Unfit for any office'
Before the vote, the congressional panel probing the deadly assault branded Donald Trump "unfit for any office".
The decision is the culmination of an 18-month probe that interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and held explosive public hearings on the storming of Congress on January 6, 2021.
At least five people died after a mob whipped up by Trump's false claims of a stolen election, and directed to march on Congress by the defeated president, ransacked the seat of US democracy in a thwarted bid to prevent the transfer of power to President Joe Biden.
In her opening remarks, vice-chair Liz Cheney accused Trump of "a clear dereliction of duty" in failing to immediately attempt to stop the riot and called him "unfit for any office."
"No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again," she said.
The referrals would be largely symbolic, as the panel has no control over charging decisions, which rests with the Justice Department.
Jack Smith, a largely independent special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is leading his own investigation into Trump related to the 2020 election.
But the lawmakers' move is nevertheless historic, as Congress has never made a criminal referral against a sitting or former president.
It is also a major blow to Trump amid a series of missteps in the weeks since he announced a comeback bid for the White House.
Charges could result in a ban from public office for the 76-year-old tycoon, who still wields considerable power in the Republican Party, and even prison time.
"To cast a vote in the United States is an act of faith and hope," committee chairman Bennie Thompson said.
"That faith in our system is the foundation of American democracy. If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith."