However, the Committee's splashy finale lacked any substantial new evidence to make a compelling criminal case against former President Donald Trump. The Committee repackaged largely the same evidence that it has previously put forward over the past year.

That is not enough.

Indeed, the reliance on a new videotape of former Trump aide Hope Hicks seems a case of putting "hope over experience" in the criminal Justice system.

While still based largely on the failure to act, Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Cal.) insisted that "if that's not criminal, nothing is." The opposite may be true from a First Amendment perspective. If the failure to act is criminal, it is hard to see what would not criminal under this standard.

After members like Schiff, again, promised new evidence to support criminal charges, the Committee continued its pattern of rehashing previously known evidence with network-quality videotapes.

The failure of the Committee to offer any new and direct evidence of criminal conduct was obvious at the outset, Vice Chair Liz Cheney began her remarks by again detailing what Trump failed to do. It was a repeat of the prior hearings and for some likely left the impression of actors who are refusing to leave the stage long after the audience departed.

The one new piece of evidence was largely duplicative. It shows former aide Hope Hicks saying that she also called upon Trump to make a public statement calling for peace and telling him that there is no evidence of systemic fraud. Nevertheless, the videotape has been heralded by figures like former acting Solicitor General Neil Katyal on MSNBC as "evidence I've never seen before from Hope Hicks."  Katyal bizarrely claims "I think that tells you all you need to know about premeditation. Call it criminal intent. The House committees evidence here is very strong."