In the four years since mobs of his supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat, Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have waged an incessant campaign to rewrite the history of one of the most shameful events in modern American history.
Now, as the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising nears, they have sunk to a new and dangerous low by calling for a criminal investigation of former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the main officials who sought to tell the truth about Trump’s role in inciting the insurrection.
In their false version, perpetrated in a new congressional report, the guilty parties are Cheney and the key witnesses to the House panel that laid out Trump’s role in instigating the riot.
The 128-page “interim report” by Georgia Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk said Cheney should be investigated by the FBI for alleged witness tampering. Her alleged crime: encouraging the truthful testimony of a key witness, former junior White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, about Trump’s activities that day.
The Dec. 17 report called that “illicit and unethical” and contended that “numerous federal laws were likely broken” by Cheney. Within hours of its release, Trump weighed in on Truth Social at 3:11 a.m., declaring the former Wyoming congresswoman “could be in a lot of trouble” and adding, “these violations should be investigated by the FBI.'”