The court filing looks simple enough: The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection wants to see certain records and is asking a judge to order them released.

But the judge isn’t the only one the committee is trying to persuade. Another audience — perhaps the more consequential one — may be the nation’s top prosecutor, Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The 221-page legal brief filed by the committee on Wednesday presents a vivid narrative about Jan. 6 and reaches a stark conclusion: In trying to overturn the 2020 election and stay in office, former President Donald Trump and others “may have engaged in criminal and/or fraudulent acts.”

The Jan. 6 committee has no power to charge anyone with a crime. That authority rests with Garland’s Justice Department, whose focus thus far has largely been the rioters who overran the Capitol that day and not the organizers of Trump’s rally that drew many of them to Washington, D.C. In laying out its findings, the committee appears to be amping up pressure on Garland to investigate Trump and his associates. And it has given Garland a tip sheet of sorts, complete with witnesses to interview, documents to read and legal arguments to make.

Democrats’ impatience with Garland has been growing. Some lawmakers have voiced frustration that Garland doesn’t seem to be targeting those who plotted to keep Biden from taking the office he had rightfully won.