The GQP released a 128-page report on Tuesday on the “failures and politicization” of the January 6 Select Committee, and concluded the necessity for an FBI criminal investigation into former Rep. Liz Cheney.
Chairman Barry Loudermilk (GQP- Georgia) of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight said Cheney may have tampered with witness Cassidy Hutchinson, former White House aide, and is a reflection of Trump’s claim that members of the Jan. 6 panel should “go to jail” for their work.
The accusations against Cheney are based on texts between Cassidy Hutchinson and Alyssa Farah Griffin, suggesting Farah Griffin was a backchannel communicator between Hutchinson and Cheney.
An investigation into witness tampering by Cheney would be interesting.
- Cheney could assert any actions she took through her work on the panel are protected by the Speech or Debate Clause, which protects lawmakers from court action related to their work.
- Charges of witness tampering usually involve encouraging a witness to lie or shift their story — which Cassidy Hutchinson accused her original lawyer of doing. “The less you remember, the better,” Hutchinson said she was told. “We’re gonna get you a really good job in Trump world.”
- The January 6 panel looked at Loudermilk himself giving tours of the Capitol to two men who joined the march to the Capitol insurrection.
Liz Cheney’s response:
“January 6th showed Donald Trump for who is really is – a cruel and vindictive man who allowed violent attacks to continue against our Capitol and law enforcement officers while he watched television and refused for hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave,” Cheney said in a statement noting the numerous Republican witnesses who testified before the panel.
“Chairman [Barry] Loudermilk’s (R-Ga.) ‘Interim Report’ intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did. Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth. No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously.”
