Trump’s Liz Cheney 'fixation' is 'escalating '— but legal experts say it’s devoid of substance

26 December 2024

President-elect Donald Trump's "enemies list" is reportedly a long one. According to reporting from The Atlantic's Shane Harris, Trump ally Ivan Raiklin gave him a list of more than 300 foes to potentially target for retribution.

Many of the people Trump and his MAGA allies have been railing against are Democrats, but they have been attacking some conservative Republicans as well — especially former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming). Trump has repeatedly called for Cheney to be jailed because of her work on the January 6 Select Committee.

In an article published the day after Christmas, The Hill's Rebecca Beitsch reports that Trump's "fixation on" Cheney "is escalating." But according to former federal prosecutor Elie Honig and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), a former constitutional law professor, any federal charges against the arch-conservative ex-congresswoman would be devoid of merit.

Beitsch explains, "In the wake of a report by a House subcommittee that alleges Cheney improperly communicated with star witness Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump accused Cheney of committing crimes as she led the panel."

Trump, on his Truth social platform, posted, "Liz Cheney has been exposed in the Interim Report, by Congress, of the J6 Unselect Committee as having done egregious and unthinkable acts of crime…. She is so unpopular and disgusting, a real loser!"

Rep. Barry Loudermilk's (R-Georgia) report on Cheney, according to Beitsch, is "something of a road map for a possible investigation" of Cheney.

But Raskin told The Hill, "It is not a crime in America to tell someone to testify truthfully. That's the opposite of witness tampering and suborning perjury. And of course, Cassidy Hutchinson did testify truthfully. But Liz Cheney was a member of Congress, which means that she had all of the robust protection of the Speech and Debate Clause, which insulates members in the performance of their legislative duties from prosecution and investigation outside of Congress."

Raskin added, "The legislative function, including investigation, is completely protected and, as the authors of the report obviously know, investigators routinely meet witnesses."

Beitsch notes that in an article he wrote for New York Magazine, Honig stressed that there is no evidence that Cheney did anything wrong.

Honig wrote, "Even if you take every word of the House Oversight Committee’s report on January 6 as gospel — and, please, don't — Liz Cheney did not commit a crime. It's not close. The suggestion to the contrary by the Republicans who ran the Committee betrays that they either have no clue about criminal law or don't care because the politics of payback reign supreme."

Read The Hill's full article at this link.

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