The best argument I've heard for the Congressional Committee submitting a Trump criminal referral:

[Novara]

5. He's absolutely right

"...Trump always preys on people's weaknesses and if the Congressional Committee doesn't make the referral, we know Trump is going to say he's been acquitted by the Congressional Committee and he's been cleared as innocent. Totally perfect, beautiful and the like."

Exactly. So make the goddamned referral.

But don't do it until you have very public hearings a la Watergate, splashed across all TV screens so the public knows exactly what that motherfucker did and HOW it violates the Constitution left and right and HOW criminal it all is. Use the public's outrage to give the referral momentum.

If they just quietly sneak in a referral without laying it all out for the public - and the world - to see, THEN it will look purely political. OTOH, if the public and the world see how outrageous his crimes are, if gives them a little bit of cover. Sure, it will be called political no matter what. The mere existence of the CRIMES makes this political. But the public has a right to see how goddamned criminal this is. It's in the public's interest to lay it all out. And when the public gets outraged, the referral makes perfect sense and the DoJ can't NOT prosecute the motherfucker.