After Investigating January 6, House GOP Sides with Trump, Targets Liz Cheney for Prosecution
The House GOP’s final investigation into the January 6 attack concludes with a push for legal action against Liz Cheney. As Trump targets political adversaries, the new findings raise questions about fairness and accountability.
Cheney remains firm in her belief that Trump bears primary responsibility for the insurrection
House Republicans have issued a report suggesting that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a key figure in investigating the attack, should be prosecuted. This recommendation, delivered by the GOP's subcommittee under Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), comes amid a broader effort by former President Donald Trump and his allies to discredit those who have played prominent roles in exposing the events surrounding the violent assault on Congress.
The findings, released Tuesday, are centered on allegations that Cheney and other members of the January 6 committee—which she served on as vice chair—overstepped legal boundaries in their investigation. The report claims Cheney's actions, particularly her involvement with star witness Cassidy Hutchinson, amounted to witness tampering and violated federal law. Cheney, in turn, has denied the accusations, calling them politically motivated and baseless.
"Numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI," the subcommittee's interim report reads. This stark recommendation is part of a wider Republican campaign to recast the narrative of the Capitol attack and assign blame for what many GOP leaders consider an unfair targeting of Trump.
Trump, whose role in inciting the January 6 violence has been the subject of numerous investigations, weighed in on the report with a Truth Social post, thanking Loudermilk for his work and suggesting that Cheney might face severe consequences. “Thank you to Congressman Barry Loudermilk on a job well done,” Trump wrote. “Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble based on the evidence obtained by the subcommittee.”
The report signals a significant shift in the GOP's stance regarding the Capitol attack. For months, Republicans have sought to undermine the findings of the bipartisan January 6 committee, which concluded that Trump was directly responsible for encouraging the violent events that transpired on January 6, 2021. The committee’s investigation, which resulted in the publication of a 900-page report in December 2022, outlined in detail how Trump’s actions and rhetoric led to the insurrection. Despite this, many Republicans, including Loudermilk, have rallied behind the narrative that Trump bears no blame for the attack.
Loudermilk’s report attempts to divert attention from Trump’s responsibility, instead focusing on what the panel considers procedural missteps and legal violations by Cheney and her colleagues. The focus on Cheney—who voted to impeach Trump after the insurrection and was one of the committee’s most vocal critics of the former president—appears to be part of a broader Republican effort to discredit her and those who dared to stand up to Trump.
“Until we hold accountable those responsible, and reform our institutions, we will not fully regain trust,” Loudermilk wrote in his introduction to the report. His comments underscore the GOP’s ongoing commitment to challenging the findings of the January 6 committee and painting Trump as the victim of a political witch hunt.
In a response issued the same day as the report’s release, Cheney strongly defended her actions, describing the GOP’s accusations as a direct attempt to rewrite history. “January 6th showed Donald Trump for who he 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.
Cheney, who lost her re-election bid in 2022 after being ousted from GOP leadership for her outspoken criticism of Trump, went on to argue that Loudermilk’s report “disregards the truth” and attempts to cover up Trump’s role in the Capitol attack. She pointed to the January 6 committee's rigorous work, which included testimonies from key witnesses like Cassidy Hutchinson, who provided some of the most detailed accounts of Trump’s actions during the crisis. Hutchinson’s testimony, which described Trump’s reaction to the violence and his refusal to act decisively, was one of the most damning moments of the committee’s hearings.
In her book, Oath and Honor, Cheney detailed her efforts to support Hutchinson’s decision to testify, expressing concern for the safety of the former White House aide as she broke with her Trump-aligned attorney and came forward with explosive testimony. The GOP subcommittee’s report, however, contends that Cheney’s actions amounted to witness tampering and should be investigated as a federal crime.
The timing of the report is significant as Trump gears up for a return to the White House. As the 2024 election approaches, Trump’s political retribution is in full swing. He has promised to pardon individuals convicted for their roles in the Capitol riot and has continued to call for legal action against those who investigated his actions in connection with January 6.
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said in an interview earlier this month, referring to the members of Congress who served on the January 6 committee. Trump’s comments are part of a broader effort to galvanize his base and frame himself as a victim of a politically motivated investigation.
The report’s findings also revisit longstanding Republican arguments about the security failures that contributed to the violence at the Capitol. Loudermilk’s panel criticized the delayed response to the Capitol breach, which ultimately led to National Guard reinforcements restoring order later in the day. Yet, the report’s most significant claim remains its targeting of Cheney and the January 6 committee leadership for their handling of the investigation.
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