Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney has described a threat from President-elect Donald Trump to jail her along with others involved in an investigation into his supporters’ 2021 attack on the US Capitol, an “assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”
Cheney responded to comments made by Trump during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday in which he said members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol should “go to jail,” but said he would not direct the attorney general or appoint the FBI during his second presidency to pursue the case.
During that interview, Trump said: “Cheney has done something that is inexcusable [Bennie] Thompson and the people at the… committee of political criminals and, you know, creeps.
“They removed and destroyed all the evidence,” Trump claimed without supporting evidence, adding that those responsible were Cheney and Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi. “For what they did, quite frankly, they should go to jail.”
In a statement outlining her response, obtained by the New York Times, Cheney said Trump “lied about the January 6 commission” and that there was “no conceivable appropriate factual or constitutional basis” for going after the panel’s members to go.
“There is no conceivable adequate factual or constitutional basis for what Donald Trump is suggesting – a Justice Department investigation into the work of a congressional committee – and any lawyer who attempts to pursue this course would quickly become embroiled in criminal conduct,” it added. Cheney added. .
She added that Trump “tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden,” so he could remain in the Oval Office by mobilizing an “angry mob.”
Related: The Biden administration is considering pardons for people Trump may want to target in revenge
“This was the worst violation of our Constitution by any president in the history of our country,” said Cheney, the daughter of former US Vice President Dick Cheney. “Donald Trump’s suggestion to imprison members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions is a continuation of his attack on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”
The exchange comes as Biden is reportedly considering granting sweeping pardons to those who could be targeted by Trump’s promised “retaliation” against his political enemies.
Efforts to prosecute Trump over the attack on the Capitol were halted after he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 White House election. But Cheney — a former Harris campaign surrogate — said material collected by special counsel Jack Smith should be preserved and that “as much of that information as possible should be made public in the special counsel’s upcoming report.”
