Speaking on Monday, December 9, Liz Cheney, a former member of the partisan January 6 Committee and member of Congress, stated that she believes she shouldn’t be imprisoned for allegedly destroying more than 100 documents pertaining to the investigation and work of the January 6 Committee.
On Sunday, December 8, President-elect Donald Trump made a remark that set off the incident. Commenting on the lost, or at least vanished, committee material, he charged that the panel members had destroyed the evidence, which would have cleared him of any misconduct.
In January 2022, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who conducted the committee’s inquiry and found the missing papers, told Fox News, “It’s clear that [the J6 committee] went to considerable measures to keep Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation.” Additionally, it seems that Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson planned to impede our Subcommittee by neglecting to preserve important documents and films in accordance with House regulations.
Trump said, “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” in reference to the January 6 Committee members in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. All of the evidence was erased and destroyed.
“Biden can pardon them if he wants to,” he continued. And perhaps he ought to. He went on to explain why a pardon might be required, Just keep in mind that the unselect committee collected sworn testimony for a year and a half, then deleted it, waited, and destroyed nearly everything. Nothing remains. They won’t let you do it, and it’s unprecedented. You are imprisoned in a civil action.
“So you think Liz Cheney should go to jail?” Welker followed up with him. “Anyone who voted in favor –” he said. “Are you going to order your attorney general and your FBI director to put them in jail?” Welker interrupted. Not at all, Trump said. They should probably take a look at that. They are free to do what they choose.
Liz Cheney became extremely upset at those remarks and Trump’s accusations of misconduct, as was to be expected. She said, “Donald Trump knows his claims about the select committee are ridiculous and false, as has been detailed extensively, including by Chairman Thompson,” without providing an explanation for the whereabouts of the files.
