Areport released Tuesday by GOP leaders issued a harsh rebuke of the “failures and politicization” of the now-disbanded House Jan. 6 Committee and recommended a criminal investigation into former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the panel’s leading voices.
“Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi’s multimillion-dollar Select Committee was a political weapon with a singular focus to deceive the public into blaming President Trump for the violence on January 6 and to tarnish the legacy of his first Presidency,” Republicans in the 128-page report declared.
In addition to the recommendation that the FBI open an investigation into Cheney’s actions, the report also accused her of witness tampering for being in touch with former White House aide and committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson.
However, Cheney wasted no time hitting back against the report’s conclusions, calling them “lies” while lashing out at President-elect Donald Trump as a “cruel and vindictive” man.
“January 6th showed Donald Trump for who is really is,” said Cheney. “He watched television and refused for hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave.”
About the interim report, spearheaded by Chairman Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, Cheney said it “intentionally disregards the truth” and the “tremendous weight of evidence.”
Instead, the lengthy report “fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did,” said Cheney. “Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth. No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously.”
Trump has suggested on numerous occasions that the members of the House Jan. 6 panel should “go to jail.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over the weekend became one of the most senior Democratic leaders to suggest President Joe Biden should preemptively pardon members to protect them from potential legal prosecution by Trump.
When asked about the pre-emptive pardons for committee members in a Sunday interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sanders said: “Well, I think he might want to consider that very seriously.”
The House Jan. 6 Committee members included seven House Democrats and two House Republicans, then-Reps. Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.