The House Administration Oversight Subcommittee, led by Chairman Barry Loudermilk, released an interim report on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot on Tuesday concluding that the attack was preventable and called for an investigation into former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) for allegedly tampering with a witness during the Democrat-led congressional inquiry into the event.
“Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report released by the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk stated, according to Just the News.
“Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.,” it added. “This secret communication with a witness is improper and likely violates 18 U.S.C. 1512. Such action is outside the due functioning of the legislative process and therefore not protected by the Speech and Debate clause.”
Federal law criminalizes witness tampering in various forms, with penalties of up to 20 years in prison. The report also specifically targeted former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a key witness for Cheney during the nationally televised hearings. It alleged that Cheney encouraged false testimony regarding a handwritten document and highlighted her sensational claim that former President Donald Trump attempted to commandeer his presidential limousine on January 6 to drive it to the Capitol, a claim that was directly contradicted by the Secret Service, the outlet noted further.
Loudermilk’s report suggested Cheney also was responsible for Hutchinson’s testimony. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney for violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury,” the report said. ”Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, Hutchinson committed perjury when she lied under oath to the Select Committee.”
The report also reveals that Loudermilk’s team discovered evidence of collusion between Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee, led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney. In October, Smith released a collection of documents used in his filings for the Trump case, which included an unredacted transcript from a January 6 Select Committee interview with a witness, the outlet reported.
“Given that the Select Committee did not archive, or otherwise destroy this transcript, and that the White House refused to provide an unredacted version to the Subcommittee, the only remaining explanation is that Special Counsel Smith received the unredacted version from one of the two institutions which did not cooperate fully with the Subcommittee,” Loudermilk’s committee concluded.
Loudermilk included a personal letter to his House colleagues alongside the interim report. In the letter, he stated that his review of the Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee revealed evidence suggesting that Congress has engaged in misleading Americans for political gain. He urged his colleagues to work together to change this trend.
“Americans expect and deserve a government that is small in size, limited in scope, and fully accountable to the people, as our Founders intended,” he wrote. “The actions of some elected officials and certain government bureaucrats in the aftermath of January 6, 2021, are evidence of how we have ventured far away from those basic principles of our constitutional republic.” He added: “Transparency, accountability, and equal application of the law are the only solutions to return our nation to one that is free, safe and full of opportunity.”