Ex-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) pulled no punches on Tuesday in accusing President-elect Donald Trump of autocratic behavior in his move to squash the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report.
Cheney replied on X to a headline from Axios that read, “Trump seeks to stop Special Counsel Jack Smith releasing “imminent” final report.” Smith investigated and indicted Trump in two separate cases regarding the former president’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his retention of classified documents. Smith has moved since the election to wind down both cases ahead of Trump’s return to power.
“While Donald Trump and Barry Loudermilk continue to spread malicious lies about the 1/6 Select Committee, Trump is trying yet again to hide evidence and suppress the truth,” reacted Cheney to the Axios story. Loudermilk, a Republican congressman, recently accused Cheney of witness tampering during the House investigation into the January 6th attack – an accusation dismissed as baseless by legal analysts.
“The Justice Department has obtained testimony and evidence from dozens of Trump’s former advisors and Vice President Pence showing the danger Trump poses. Now Trump is already doing what despots do— he is trying to conceal the truth and threatening to jail those who investigated him,” Cheney continued, concluding:
The congressional report yesterday destroying Loudermilk’s fraudulent allegations shows the despicable malice behind Trump’s efforts. AG Garland now has a duty to release the Justice Department Report and prevent its evidence from being destroyed. The truth must prevail. The framers of our Constitution knew the lessons of history — that people led by men without character can quickly lose their freedom.
Cheney also hit back at Trump last week after he again accused the House January 6th Committee of destroying evidence. “Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us. Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened?” wrote Cheney on Friday, adding:
Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you. Remember how you sent a
mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember. And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic — to protect the America we love from you.