Cheney Tells America 'Prosecute Trump'
GLORIA CHRISTIE REPORTS
Straight-talking Vice-Chair of the House January 6 Select Committee Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) had some startling advice for America. She appeared on ABC News’ This Week with co-anchor Jonathan Karl and urged the DOJ to “prosecute Donald Trump in relation to the January 6 Capitol attack if a prosecution is warranted.’
People are concerned that if Trump announces his run for president early, Garland will stop his investigation.
Image is a screenshot via YouTube.
We do not know whether or not Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is going to prosecute Donald Trump for his fundamental role in the January 6 failed coup or not. Certainly, he is conservative and deliberate, but time is a wasting.
Karl interviewed her earlier in the week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. And the interview aired on Sunday’s This Week show.
Karl asked her:
‘Are you worried about what that means for the country, to [see] a former president prosecuted? A former president who was a likely candidate; who may in fact be running for president against Biden?’
Cheney responded saying not prosecuting him was “a much, a much more serious threat:”
‘I think it's a much graver constitutional threat if a president can engage in these kinds of activities, and the majority of the president's party looks away; or we as a country decide we're not actually going to take our constitutional obligations seriously. I think that's a much, a much more serious threat.’
‘I really believe we have to make these decisions, as difficult as it is, apart from politics. We really have to think about these from the perspective of: What does it mean for the country?’
Cheney said that she was “absolutely confident” in Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ right-hand woman, Cassidy Hutchinson, who was 25 at the time.
‘She's an incredibly brave young woman.’
Hutchinson testified under oath that a Secret Service agent and Trump’s deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato told her Trump was aggressive after his rally and before the attack on our Capitol Building:
‘[Trump was] verbally aggressive with Secret Service agents and lunged for the steering wheel of his vehicle after learning he was not going to the Capitol after his rally on Jan. 6, 2021.’
Cheney defended Hutchinson:
‘What Ms. Hutchinson testified to was a conversation that she was part of with Mr. Ornato and which Mr. Engel [a Secret Service agent] was present, where they detailed what happened in the limousine.’
Karl queried Cheney further:
‘Do you have any evidence other than Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony to corroborate what she said happened in that presidential motorcade?’
The January 6th Committee’s vice-chair replied:
‘The committee has significant evidence about a whole range of issues, including the president's intense anger. I think you will continue to see in the coming days and weeks additional detail about the president's activities and behavior on that day.’
Cheney added that the Select Committee:
‘[I]s not going to stand by and watch her [Hutchinson's] character be assassinated by anonymous sources and by men who are claiming executive privilege. And so we look forward very much to additional testimony under oath on a whole range of issues.’
Cheney also announced during the young woman’s testimony that several witnesses had told the committee that “Trump’s aides attempted to influence their testimony before the panel.” ABC News was able to verify that Hutchinson was among them. Karl asked the Wyoming representative:
‘Witness tampering is a crime. Are you making a criminal referral to DOJ on this?’
Cheney responded:
‘We'll make a decision as a committee about that.’
Then, the ABC cohost asked her:
‘Do you have any doubt that [Trump] broke the law and that he is guilty of criminal violations? ‘
She said:
‘There's no question that he engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors. I think there's no question that it's the most serious betrayal of his oath of office of any president in the history of the nation. It's the most dangerous behavior of any president in the history of the nation.’
Then, Karl asked her the big question:
‘It's possible there will be a criminal referral?’
Cheney’s answer was directly to the point:
‘Yes, [the DOJ] doesn't have to wait.’
Even last year, she told ABC News:
‘[I will] do everything that I can to make sure [Trump] never gets anywhere close to the Oval Office again.’
Then in Sunday’s interview, Cheney explained the “goal of the hearings:”
‘The goal of the hearings is to make sure that the American people understand what happened; to help inform legislation, legislative changes that we might need to make. I think it's also the case that there's not a single thing that I have learned, as we have been involved in this investigation, that has made me less concerned.
‘There's no question: A man as dangerous as Donald Trump can absolutely never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.’
Cheney was willing to protect our democracy even if it meant sacrificing her career in the short term. But in the long term, she will be remembered as an historical hero. She continued:
‘The single most important thing is protecting the nation from Donald Trump. And I think that that matters to us as Americans more than anything else, and that's why my work on the committee is so important.
‘It's so important to not just brush this past and say, “Okay, well, that's in the past,” but it informs whether this sort of toxin of Trump's belief that he can put himself above the Constitution and put himself above the law -- whether or not we successfully defeat that. And I think it's very important that people know the truth. And that there are consequences.’
She added that the GOP “can’t survive” if Trump is the Republican nominee for 2024.
In Gloria Christie Reports & Three White Lions Substack newsletters, Gloria Christie includes her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletters are for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery (in process). Find her here on Facebook. Or at Three White Lions her book on Amazon Kindle Vella.
Well said, Scott.