Former President Trump on Monday swiped at Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who serves as vice chair of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, a day after she signaled that the panel is leaving the door open to possible criminal referrals of Trump to the Justice Department.
During an interview that aired on ABC News on Sunday, Cheney said the committee may make a criminal referral, or multiple criminal referrals, to the DOJ about the possible crimes it has found in its investigation.
“The Justice Department doesn’t have to wait for the Committee to make a criminal referral,” Cheney said. “There could be more than one criminal referral.”
A day after Cheney’s comments aired, Trump disparaged her in a post on his knockoff Twitter app TRUTH Social. The former president also, again, pushed his familiar and false claims that he was “cheated” in the 2020 election.
“Warmongering and despicable human being Liz Cheney, who is hated by the great people of Wyoming (down 35!), keeps saying, over and over again, that HER Fake Unselect Committee may recommend CRIMINAL CHARGES against a President of the United States who got more votes than any sitting President in history,” Trump wrote.
“Even the Dems didn’t know what she was talking about! Why doesn’t she press charges instead against those that cheated on the Election, or those that didn’t properly protect the Capitol?” the former president continued.
Trump went on to jab the committee by complaining that the panel is made up of the “same people” who were involved in both of his impeachment trials and the Russia probe— despite the fact that Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), both of whom are the only Republicans to serve on the committee, voted against impeaching Trump in his first impeachment trial. The former president also fear-mongered about a so-called “massive crime wave.” (Trump did not specify what he is referring to.)
Trump’s latest attack against Cheney comes a week after the panel’s explosive public hearing featuring Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Among the damning revelations in her testimony, Hutchinson detailed Trump’s fury on Jan. 6 as he faced resistance from his inner circle when he demanded that he be able to march to the Capitol with his supporters after the rally on the Ellipse. Additionally, Hutchinson recalled Trump demanding the Secret Service remove metal detectors at the pre-insurrection rally on the Ellipse so that his armed supporters could attend and increase the crowd size.
In her interview with ABC News, Cheney noted that she found Hutchinson’s testimony to be “very chilling.”
Pressed on whether she was concerned about prosecuting a former president who could potentially launch a presidential bid in 2024, Cheney replied that she is more concerned about “what it would mean if people weren’t held accountable for what’s happened here.”
