reporter: chairman bennie thompson publicly claiming the january 6th house select committee will not refer former president trump or anyone else to the justice department for criminal prosecution. what i prefer that we complete our work and seal that work with the department of justice. and they will make that call after that. reporter: even without a referral, the justice department would prosecute. but some committee members feel those comments are premature. we have had a discussion about that. i thought we discovered that decision until we concluded our investigation, at least that s my understanding. reporter: vice chair liz cheney pushing back on thompson s statement. writing in a tweet, the january 6th select committee has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals. despite the discord in the committee, attorney general merrick garland said he s monitoring its findings. i am watching. and i will be watching all the hearings. and i can as