‘Any interaction’ Trump has with Jan. 6 committee will be under oath, subject to perjury penalties, Rep. Liz Cheney says
On Saturday, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) emphasized that “any interaction” that former President Trump has with the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, will be “under oath and subject to penalties of perjury.”
Along with the other committee members, the vice chair has kept quiet about many parts of the investigation the panel is conducting into the incident that happened on January 6.
In an interview that took place on Saturday with Evan Smith, the CEO of the Texas Tribune, Cheney declined to directly answer the question of whether or not the panel would be interested in hearing from the former president, instead noting that if it did, the former president would be required to tell the truth.
Cheney, a major Trump opponent, did not hold back in speaking against the former president, though, and called him “fundamentally detrimental” to the Republican Party. He also did not hold back in his criticism of Trump. The congressman cited the reaction of her fellow Republicans to the discovery of presidential papers at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate as the most recent example.
“You look at how many senior Republicans are going through contortions to try to defend the fact that the former president had stored in a desk drawer, apparently, in an unsecure storage room, in a resort… documents that had the highest classification markings,” Cheney told Smith at the Tribune’s annual festival.
Cheney told Smith that despite her opinions toward the previous president, she did not regret voting against Trump’s first attempt at impeachment based on the facts presented. She also said that the proceedings had an impact on the job that she is doing now for the January 6 Committee.
“They would have had more Republican votes if they had enforced their subpoenas, and that is certainly a lesson that we have taken into [the] Jan. 6 Select Committee’s work,” Cheney said.
The January 6 Committee has taken a strong stance on making sure its subpoenas are followed, and it has sent some Trump associates to be investigated for possible criminal contempt of Congress.
Cheney has said that she would “do all I can” to prevent Trump from being the Republican candidate for president in the election that will take place in 2024.
“And if he is the nominee,” she added, “I won’t be a Republican.”
