Representative Liz Cheney said Tuesday that the Jan. 6 commission had been told that former President Donald J. Trump had contacted a witness in the panel’s investigation in the past two weeks, and that the commission had informed the Department of Justice about the investigation. approach .
Ms. Cheney gave little detail and did not identify the witness in question, but she emphatically linked Mr Trump’s reach with concerns the committee has expressed in the past about witness tampering.
“After our last hearing, President Trump has attempted to call a witness in our investigation, a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings,” said Ms. Cheney, a Wyoming Republican who is the committee’s vice chair.
“That person refused to answer or respond to President Trump’s call and instead let their lawyer know about the call,” she continued. “Their lawyer warned us. And this committee has provided that information to the Department of Justice. Let me say again that we will take any attempt to influence witness testimony very seriously.”
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on whether the Department had received or acted on the information. A spokesperson for Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Ms. Cheney acted in “insinuations and lies,” but did not directly address whether Mr. Trump had attempted to contact a witness.
Ms. Cheney’s comments came during the closing moments of Tuesday’s hearing and two weeks after the previous hearing, when a former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, testified that Mr. Trump was aware that some members of the crowd on Jan. 6 were armed, that he intended to lead his supporters to the Capitol anyway, and that White House officials had expressed concern that Mr. Trump before January 6 could be illegal.
At the end of the public hearing with Ms. Hutchinson, Ms. Cheney raised the prospect that Mr. Trump and his allies were tampering with a witness — later turned out to be Mrs Hutchinson — and shared messages sent to her by people close to Mr Trump.
According to the report provided by the committee at the time, the witness was informed in one phone call that Mr. Trump was paying attention to the hearings and reading the transcripts. The caller said the witness would remain “in good graces in the Trump world” if the person remained “a team player” and showed that they were “protecting” who they were supposed to protect.
In another interview, according to the commission, the witness was told that Mr Trump “knows that you are loyal and that you will do the right thing if you make your statement”.
“I think most Americans know that trying to influence witnesses, to testify falsely, raises very serious concerns,” Ms Cheney said at that hearing.