Trump doubles down on call for Liz Cheney to be prosecuted
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(The Hill) – Former President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his push for former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to be prosecuted over allegations she and the other Jan. 6 committee members purposely withheld testimony and details from their investigation into the former president’s actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Trump, on Truth Social on Sunday, posted a piece from former Trump administration aide Kash Patel published in The Federalist last week, in which Patel claimed Cheney and the House Jan. 6 committee “suppressed evidence” about the former president’s authorization of National Guard troops during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
“SHE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY! SHE ILLEGALLY DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE. UNREAL!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social while linking to Patel’s piece.
Cheney clapped back Sunday at Trump’s calls for her to be jailed on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, writing, “Hi Donald: you know these are lies. You have had all the grand jury & J6 transcripts for many months. You’re trying to halt your 1/6 trial because your VP, WH counsel, WH aides, campaign & DOJ officials etc. will testify against you. You’re afraid of the truth and you should be.”
Cheney served as vice chair of the House Jan. 6 committee and emerged as one of the most outspoken GOP critics of the former president. She has repeatedly pinned the blame on Trump for allegedly inciting the riot.
Cheney lost her seat in the House after three terms to Trump-backed challenger Rep. Harriet Hageman during the 2022 primaries in Wyoming, where Trump maintained wide support with voters.
The back-and-forth comes nearly a week after House Republicans released a new report on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in an attempt to discredit Congress’s initial investigation into the Capitol insurrection and clear Trump of any wrongdoing as he pursues reelection.
The report, drafted by the House Administration Committee’s oversight subpanel, accuses the now-disbanded Jan. 6 select committee of embarking on a partisan witch hunt to harm the former president.
Included in the report was a detail about how the driver of Trump’s car on Jan. 6 disputed testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who previously claimed Trump tried to take control of the car and go toward the Capitol. She told the public she heard in a story from others that Trump had “lunged” for the steering wheel after his speech near the White House in an apparent attempt to go toward the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The unnamed driver told the committee, however, that Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel,” and he said he “didn’t see him … lunge to try to get into the front seat at all.”
Republicans have seized on the driver’s testimony and how the committee did not release it earlier as further fuel to their argument Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 should be exonerated.
A copy of the transcript of the driver’s testimony, reviewed by The New York Times, indicated the driver did back Hutchinson’s details about Trump’s insistence to join supporters at the Capitol.
Trump currently faces four felonies over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, though the trial has been delayed while the Supreme Court weighs whether the former president’s actions on Jan. 6 fall under presidential immunity. Trump has argued he cannot be prosecuted because he was working as president at the time.