Former Congressional Republican Liz Cheney pursued conservatives during her work with Democrats on their J6 committee, but now the tables may be turning. The House Administration Oversight Subcommittee issued a report about the J6 committee last week, calling for the FBI to investigate Cheney and accusing her of two crimes. Cheney communicated with J6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson without going through Hutchinson’s attorney, and the report accused Cheney, who campaigned for Kamala Harris this past year after being soundly defeated for reelection in her primary race, of engaging in “procuring another person to commit perjury” and “witness tampering’.”
Donald Trump hinted at prosecuting Cheney after the report came out. He posted on TruthSocial, “Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble based on the evidence obtained by the subcommittee, which states that ‘numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI.”
Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier this month that members of the J6 committee “should go to jail.” He’s said he will consider pardons for those who protested at the Capitol on Jan. 6 “within the first nine minutes” of his term. “And if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished.”
Issued by committee chair Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11),the 128-page report found regarding Cheney, “This secret communication with a witness is improper and likely violates 18 U.S.C. 1512. Such action is outside the due functioning. The Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney for violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury.”
Cheney, whose name is mentioned over a hundred times in the report, was accused of coercing Hutchinson into changing her testimony. The report said Hutchinson’s first two interviews, which lasted for hours, revealed nothing of significance. But after she spoke with Cheney, “Hutchinson drastically switched her narrative and began testifying to a variety of unsubstantiated and uncorroborated claims that ultimately appeared in the Select Committee’s final report.”
The committee observed skeptically, “Through thousands of hours of interviews, and the interrogation of hundreds of witnesses, it is noteworthy that the Select Committee chose to focus the conclusions of its nearly one-thousand-page report largely on the uncorroborated and inconsistent testimony of one witness — Cassidy Hutchinson.”
One of the incidents cited after Hutchinson’s change of heart was her statement that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato told her Trump lunged toward the driver of his car after his request to go to the Capitol was denied. “This story has never been corroborated and was directly refuted by both United States Secret Service (“USSS”) agents in the vehicle with President Trump that day, and Ornato himself,” the report said.
The report laid out how Cheney went around Hutchinson’s attorney Stefan Passantino to talk to Hutchinson. Former White House employee “Farah Griffin helped coordinate Hutchinson’s third transcribed interview — without the knowledge of Hutchinson’s attorney, Stefan Passantino,” the report said. “When Hutchinson texted Representative Cheney, she was still represented by Passantino, which Representative Cheney knew. Representative Cheney and Hutchinson communicated directly for days without Passantino’s knowledge.”
The report also found, “Hutchinson’s messages indicate that she and Farah Griffin colluded to create a false story about why Hutchinson needed to do a third transcribed interview for the Select Committee to convince her attorney, Passantino.” The committee obtained text messages from Hutchinson, and said she colluded on leaking information to the media instead of testifying.
Additionally, “Representative Cheney’s influence on Hutchinson went beyond contacting Hutchinson directly,” the committee found. “Representative Cheney played a primary role in Hutchinson firing her current, free-to-her legal counsel Passantino, and even provided Hutchinson with a list of attorneys that would likely contribute to building the Select Committee’s narrative.”
Hutchinson admitted what Cheney had done. “In a television panel with a member of the Select Committee — Representative Raskin — a year following the end of the Select Committee, Hutchinson freely stated that she had ‘backchanneled for a third interview without my former attorney’s knowledge at the time, with one of my good friends, Alyssa Farah Griffin.’”
The committee said Cheney’s actions also violated attorney ethics rules. “Cheney is an attorney, and an attorney who circumvents an individual’s legal representation would violate well-established attorney ethics standards and the Washington D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct, regardless of who initiates the contact.” A bar complaint was filed against Cheney in October by America First Legal on behalf of Passantino.
The report also found that Cheney and Hutchinson attempted to get Passantino disbarred.
The report observed, “In a twist of irony, Representative Cheney spoke out forcefully against individuals who endeavored to influence witness testimony in the Select Committee.”
Cheney was named to the J6 committee shortly after attacking Trump. On May 12, 2021, she boasted, “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president [Trump] never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.” Her addition to the final report said “no man” who behaved as President Trump “can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again,” and that “[Trump] is unfit for any office.”
The report cited staffers complaining to The Washington Post that Cheney was even more zealous than the Democrats on the committee going after Trump. “People familiar with the committee’s work said Cheney has taken a far more hands-on role than [Chair] Bennie G. Thompson,” and “[s]he is said by multiple staffers to want the report to focus on Trump, and has pushed for the hearings to focus extensively on his conduct — and not what she views as other sideshows.”
The report concluded that the House needs to declare the appointment of the J6 committee invalid, due to excluding any Republican ranking member and breaking other House rules in its formation.
A letter from Loudermilk announcing the report stated that the 2-year-long investigation faced considerable stonewalling. “[M]y subcommittee staff have faced incredible obstacles in pursuit of the truth; missing and deleted documents, hidden evidence, unaccounted for video footage, and uncooperative bureaucrats,” he said. But despite the hurdles, the committee performed a thorough investigation. “We interviewed hundreds of witnesses, scoured over millions of pages of documents, analyzed thousands of hours of surveillance videos, listened to hundreds of hours of radio communications, and conducted hearings,” he said.
News reports state that Joe Biden is considering preemptive pardons for Cheney and a few other Democrats who may be prosecuted by the incoming Trump administration.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Liz Cheney” by Zachery Schmidt / The Star News Network.