Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., once said during a hearing of the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, "I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns."
Whether Cheney should face charges over allegations she talked through back channels with a key witness for the select committee will be "something for hopefully a new Justice Department" to decide, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Wednesday.
The House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight that Loudermilk chairs unveiled Tuesday correspondence between Cheney, the vice chair of the select committee, and Cassidy Hutchinson while Hutchinson was still a subject of the select committee's investigation.
According to encrypted text messages, obtained by Loudermilk's subcommittee, between Hutchinson and Alyssa Farah Griffin — the two worked together in Donald Trump's White House — Cheney agreed to communicate with Hutchinson through Farah Griffin. Meanwhile, Cheney apparently knew contacting Hutchinson without going through her attorney and while she was a subject of the select committee's investigation would be unethical.
Hutchinson testified under oath that she heard Trump lunged at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV and engaged in a physical altercation with his lead Secret Service agent after being told they were not going to the Capitol on Jan. 6, testimony which has since been refuted.
She also testified Trump was so angry at the White House he threw a plate of food at the wall, smearing it with ketchup.
"Well, that's something for hopefully a new Justice Department that we hope will come in after January for them to decide," Loudermilk told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" when asked whether Cheney should go to jail. "This information clearly shows there was back-channel communication going on between Liz Cheney and Cassidy Hutchinson, who inevitably became their star witness. And Liz Cheney even mentioned in the text stream that they were going through Alyssa Farah, that this was highly irregular and unethical and potentially even illegal."
Loudermilk's subcommittee revealed in a March report that other White House employees directly refuted Hutchinson's testimony. It said the select committee was in possession of those accounts but chose to hide them, instead promoting Hutchinson's narrative.
"If you look at one of the most egregious aspects of what has happened here, not only the back-channeling, but you have Cassidy Hutchinson, who had already testified twice, and she basically gave them nothing," Loudermilk said. "Her testimony was right in line with everyone else who had testified.
"Then this back-channel communication happens. They have a third interview. She testifies a third time. In her own words in her book, she started laying breadcrumbs at that point.
"Now her attorney, Stefan Passantino, had no idea of the back-channel communications going on at all. After that third interview, she fires him after an actual direct conversation with Liz Cheney ... and according to Cassidy, in her own book, she said Liz got her the new attorney.
"So that's when all of these elaborate stories of Trump trying to wrestle the steering wheel away from a Secret Service agent, attacking a Secret Service agent, throwing cheeseburgers against the wall, that's when all these stories came out, which, as you know, we have already found these documents that went missing that totally debunked every one of those testimonies."
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