Multiple criminal referrals of Trump possible: Cheney
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection could make multiple criminal referrals to the Justice Department of former president Donald Trump over his role in the Capitol attack, Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the committee’s vicechairperson, said in an interview.
‘‘The Justice Department doesn’t have to wait for the committee to make a criminal referral,’’ Cheney said on ABC’s This Week.
‘‘And there could be more than one criminal referral.’’
Cheney emphasised that the committee’s aims were not political, but also that the Justice Department should not refrain from prosecuting Trump out of concerns about political optics if the evidence warrants criminal prosecution.
‘‘I think it’s a much graver constitutional threat if a president can engage in these kinds of activities and the majority of the president’s party looks away, or we as a country decide we’re not actually going to take our constitutional obligations seriously,’’ Cheney said.
She went on to express grave concerns about the idea of Trump running as the GOP presidential nominee for a third time.
‘‘I think there’s no question – I mean, a man as dangerous as Donald Trump can absolutely never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again,’’ Cheney said.
The Republican Party, she said, could not survive if Trump were its 2024 presidential nominee. ‘‘Millions of people, millions of Republicans have been betrayed by Donald Trump. And that is a really painful thing for people to recognise and to admit, but it’s absolutely the case,’’ Cheney said. ‘‘And they’ve been betrayed by him, by the big lie, and by what he continues to do and say to tear apart our country and tear apart our party.’’
The interview was Cheney’s first since the committee began holding public hearings. It was taped days after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave bombshell testimony about Trump’s actions.