At the close ofTuesday’s hearingabout theattack on the U.S. Capitoland efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Rep.Liz Cheneywarned against efforts to “influence testimony” during the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation after claimingDonald Trumprecently attempted to contact an unnamed witness.
Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who is the committee’s vice chair, said Trump allegedly reached out to the witness after the committee’s previous public hearing on June 28, whenCassidy Hutchinsongaveshocking testimonyabout the former president’s behavior on and before Jan. 6.
“After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation, a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings,” Cheney said Tuesday. “That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump’s call and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us.”
Cheney added that the committee has handed over information about Trump allegedly calling a witness to the U.S. Department of Justice.
She also issued a warning: “Let me say one more time, we will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” Cheney said.
Liz Cheney (left), Donald Trump.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty; Brandon Bell/Getty
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich cautioned against drawing conclusions about Cheney’s statement in a tweet on Tuesday.
“The media has become pawns of the Unselect Committee. Liz Cheney continues to traffic in innuendos and lies that go unchallenged, unconfirmed, but repeated as fact because the narrative is more important than the truth,” Budowichwrote on Twitter.
In an appearance on CNN after the hearing, committee member Rep.Jamie Raskintold Jake Tapper it’s unclear whether Trump’s call amounts to witness tampering or obstruction of justice.
Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty
“Well, we’d have to know a lot more about it. The point is that the Committee takes really seriously the ability of witnesses to come in — like Cassidy Hutchinson — and tell us everything they know without fear of reprisal or coercion and so on,” Raskin said. “So people who have an interest in what we’re doing here should not be calling up witnesses to be influencing them. And that’s the message that I think the Vice Chair of the committee wanted to put out.”
Raskin also said “there’s been a pattern” of cooperating witnesses being contacted during the investigation but it’s up to law enforcement to consider whether a crime has been committed.
“The main thing is we want it to stop,” Raskin said. “I’ll leave it to the Department of Justice to decide where to take it from there. But we just can’t have this. It’s a ridiculous pattern.”
Liz Cheney (left), Jamie Raskin.J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Cheney’s revelation on Tuesday is the second time the committee has implied the possibility of witness tampering.
Investigators have made it a practice to ask witnesses if they’ve heard from Trump or his allies ahead of their testimony, according to a statement from the Jan. 6 Committee.
In the same tweet, the committee providedtwo examplesof responses it has received when asked such a question.
“What they said to me is as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I’m on the team, I’m doing the right thing, I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in the good graces in Trump world,” one example reads. “And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just keep that in mind as I proceed through my depositions and interviews with the committee.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer.
“[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you,” reads another. “He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”
source: people.com
