Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) has branded President-elect Donald Trump a “cruel and vengeful man” and said his Republican allies waged a “malicious and cowardly” attack on the truth to cover up his role in the Capitol revolt.
The former lawmaker’s comments came after a top Republican released a report Tuesday accusing Cheney of misconduct over her role on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), the chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, alleged that Cheney may have tampered with a witness and encouraged them to commit perjury.
The report recommended that Cheney face a criminal investigation, alleging that the former lawmaker improperly interfered with the damning testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
Cheney said these claims were lies.
“Jan. 6th showed Donald Trump for whom [he] He is truly a cruel and vindictive man who allowed violent attacks against our Capitol and law enforcement officers to continue while he watched television,” Cheney said in a statement. “…The January 6 committee hearings and report include dozens of Republican witnesses, including many of the top officials from Trump’s own White House, campaign and administration.”
“…Now Chairman Loudermilk’s ‘Interim Report’ willfully ignores the truth and the Select Committee’s vast body of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory accusations in an effort to cover up what Donald Trump has done.”
Cheney was vice chairman of the select committee, one of only two Republicans on the panel. The bipartisan group released a lengthy report on the issue in late 2022, blaming Trump for inciting the insurrection as part of a broad attack to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race that he lost to Joe Biden.
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Trump has repeatedly called for Cheney to be jailed over her work on the House panel, as the president-elect sees retaliation against those he labels his political enemies. He recently claimed, without evidence, that she had committed a “major crime,” calling the group of lawmakers on the committee “political criminals.”
Cheney fired back at the time, calling Trump’s comments yet another attempt to undermine “the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”
The Biden White House has reportedly been considering the idea of preemptive pardons for some in Trump’s crosshairs, including Cheney, California Sen. Adam Schiff (D), special counsel Jack Smith, and Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute or Allergy and infectious diseases.