Thirty-three days out from Trump’s inauguration, the president-elect’s comments show he intends to make good on his vows for revenge against his political opponents. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Trump issued yet another warning to former Representative Liz Cheney for her role in the congressional probe into the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.
Soon after 3 a.m. Wednesday, Trump set his sights on the former Republican representative, writing, “Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble based on the evidence obtained by the subcommittee, which states that ‘numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI.’ Thank you to Congressman Barry Loudermilk on a job well done.”
On Tuesday, Republican Representative Barry Loudermilk, who chairs the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, released a 128-page “interim report” by House Republicans on the January 6 committee. Specifically, the report called for Cheney to be criminally investigated, accusing the former January 6 committee vice chair of witness tampering and colluding with former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified before the committee on the events surrounding that day, including Trump’s behavior during the riot.
Loudermilk’s report shows House Republicans in lockstep with Trump’s plans for retribution against his political foes. Recently, Trump has said of everyone on the January 6 committee, but namely Cheney and its former chair, Bennie Thompson: “Yea, honestly, they should go to jail.”
Both Loudermilk’s report and Trump’s continued threats toward Cheney come as the president-elect assembles an administration that shares his ardor for vengeance against MAGA’s enemies, including his pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, who has promised to go after the president-elect’s opponents in the government and media.
Cheney responded to Loudermilk’s interim report Tuesday with a statement on BlueSky.
“The January 6th Committee’s hearings and report featured scores of republican witnesses, including many of the most senior officials from Trump’s own White House, campaign and Administration,” Cheney wrote. “All of this testimony was painstakingly set out in thousands of pages of transcripts, made public along with a highly detailed and meticulously sourced 800 page report. The Department of Justice conducted its own independent investigation and reached the same fundamental conclusions.”
Cheney’s statement said Loudermilk’s report “intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence,” instead spinning up “lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did.”
“No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously.”
