WASHINGTON – The lawmaker who led Republicans’ counter-investigation into the House committee on Jan. 6 said former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) should face a criminal investigation because of her committee work.
In a report released Tuesday, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said Cheney may have illegally tampered with a witness and encouraged that witness to commit perjury.
“Based on the evidence obtained by this subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely violated by Liz Cheney, the former vice chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report says in its report. conclusion.
Cheney served as vice chairman of the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. final report He accuses newly elected President Donald Trump of inciting the attack, outlines his broader efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and urges the Justice Department to file federal charges.
The allegation of misconduct outlined in Tuesday’s report centers on Cheney’s interaction with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who claimed in public testimony before the committee Jan. 6 that she was told Trump was eager to join his supporters in the US Capitol that he lunged at a member of his security force. However, according to January 6 committee testimony, Trump’s driver disputed Hutchinson’s thrift bill that day previously revealed by Loudermilk.
According to Loudermilk’s report, Cheney improperly interfered with Hutchinson’s relationship with her attorney, Stefan Passantino, causing her to change her testimony after speaking to the committee twice.
“It is no surprise that the claims made in Hutchinson’s first two sworn interviews differ significantly from the claims she made following Representative Cheney’s direct intervention,” the report said.
However, as Hutchinson said in a transcribed interview with the committee, her Trump-related lawyer had discouraged her from providing candid testimony while promising lucrative jobs.
“The less you remember, the better,” Hutchinson said Passantino said to her. “We’re going to get you a really good job in the Trump world.”
Hutchinson testified to the January 6 committee that she believed Passantino’s advice would cause her to commit a crime by making false statements to the committee, and that her breaking point came when she said Passantino told her to completely to no longer cooperate with the committee. According to Loudermilk’s report, the Jan. 6 committee “fabricated the story” that Hutchinson told about her attorney in her own words.
Whether the Justice Department goes after Cheney will be an early test of whether Republicans and Trump will seek “retaliation” against Trump’s political opponents. The president-elect said earlier this month that Cheney and other members of the commission “should go to jail.” Trump’s pick for FBI director Kash Patel has said in the past that he would use the government to go after Trump’s enemies in government and the media. Trump has drawn on Loudermilk’s work in his January 6 comments against the committee, so Georgia Republicans’ material on Cheney could receive significant attention from the new president.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California), who served on the Jan. 6 committee, suggested Tuesday that Loudermilk’s criminal referral will hit a wall. She noted that members of Congress cannot be prosecuted for carrying out their official duties under Article I, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution.
“The idea that legislative activities would be the subject of a criminal investigation is unconstitutional,” Lofgren told HuffPost.
Loudermilk’s recommendation for a criminal investigation echoes the commission’s Jan. 6 recommendation that Passantino be charged with interfering with a witness. Loudermilk’s work has always had a small element of payback — former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) put Loudermilk in charge of the counter-investigation after the Jan. 6 committee dubiously suggested that Loudermilk was a rioter on Jan. 6 would lead an exploration of the Capitol basement, an insinuation that Capitol Police said was untrue. His subcommittee’s reports argue that it was not actually Trump’s fault that a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol.
As for retaliation in Trump’s second term, several Republicans in the Senate told HuffPost last week that they did not expect Patel to follow through on his earlier promise to go after Trump’s enemies. And Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday he did not think members of the January 6 committee should go to jail. But it won’t be their fault.
