Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney said President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to jail her along with others involved in the investigation into the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by the president’s supporters is “a legal matter.” “This is an attack on control and the foundations of our country.”
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Cheney said Trump’s members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “should go to jail.” He responded to the comments but said he did not intend to instruct the attorney general or attorney general. During his second term as president, he appointed the FBI to pursue the matter.
In that interview, Trump said, “Cheney, along with (Benny) Thompson and… people on the Committee of Political Miscreants, have done inexcusable and, you know, creepy things.”
“They deleted and destroyed all the evidence,” Trump claimed without supporting evidence, adding that Cheney and Mississippi Democrat Thompson were responsible. “Honestly, they should go to jail for what they did.”
In a statement that included her own response, obtained by The New York Times, Cheney said that Trump “lied about the January 6th commission” and that he “didn’t want to go after the committee members.” “We cannot think of any appropriate factual or constitutional basis.”
“I see no sound factual or constitutional basis for what Donald Trump is suggesting, a Department of Justice investigation into the activities of a congressional committee, that seeks to pursue such a course. “Lawyers will soon find themselves engaging in conduct that merits sanctions,” Cheney added. .
He added that Trump “attempted to overturn” the 2020 presidential election he lost to Joe Biden in order to mobilize an “angry mob” to remain in the Oval Office.
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“This was the worst violation of the Constitution by a president in the history of our country,” said Cheney, the daughter of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. “Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional conduct be imprisoned is a continuation of his attack on the rule of law and the foundations of our country.”
The exchange comes as Mr. Biden is reportedly considering granting blanket pardons to people who may be subject to Mr. Trump’s promised “retaliation” against his political opponents.
Efforts to prosecute Trump over the Capitol attack were abandoned after he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 White House election. But Cheney, a former Harris campaign attorney, said the material collected by Special Counsel Jack Smith should be preserved and that “as much of that information as possible should be disclosed in the special counsel’s future report.” It should be done.”
