Liz Cheney: Supreme Court should decide Trump immunity quickly so voters can hear Jan. 6 case

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Monday called on the Supreme Court to rule “quickly and decisively” on whether former President Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election — arguments that will be heard before the nation’s high court Thursday.

In an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday, Cheney — who served as vice chair of the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot — stressed the importance of the federal election fraud indictment against the former president going to trial before the American people decide whether to send him back to the White House this November.

“If delay prevents this Trump case from being tried this year, the public may never hear critical and historic evidence developed before the grand jury, and our system may never hold the man most responsible for Jan. 6 to account,” Cheney wrote in her Times piece.

Cheney noted that, while the House select committee collected a significant amount testimony against Trump related to his efforts on Jan. 6 — much of which is credited with compelling the Justice Department to launch its probe — there is still new information and evidence that Cheney said she is sure will be outlined during the federal trial.

“The indictment and public reporting suggest that the special counsel was able to obtain key evidence our committee did not have,” she said, noting it appears Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and former Trump aide Dan Scavino seem to have given evidence to the DOJ, while refusing to speak to the committee.

“There is little doubt that Mr. Trump’s closest advisers also gave the federal grand jury minute-to-minute accounts of his malicious conduct on Jan. 6, describing how they repeatedly begged the president to instruct the violent rioters to leave our Capitol and how Mr. Trump refused for several hours to do so as he watched the attack on television,” she wrote. “This historic testimony about a former president’s conduct is likely to remain secret until the special counsel presents his case at trial.”

Cheney stressed that Trump has had access to the federal grand jury material and all the Jan. 6 committee testimony, despite his occasional claims otherwise. She said she thinks Trump is seeking to do what he can to delay the trial until after the November election because he “knows what all these witnesses have said under oath and understands the risks he faces at trial.”

All this evidence, Cheney argued, should be presented in open court so “so that the public can fully assess what Mr. Trump did on Jan. 6 and what a man capable of that type of depravity could do if again handed the awesome power of the presidency.”

“It cannot be that a president of the United States can attempt to steal an election and seize power but our justice system is incapable of bringing him to trial before the next election four years later,” she wrote.

“If Mr. Trump’s tactics prevent his Jan. 6 trial from proceeding in the ordinary course, he will also have succeeded in concealing critical evidence from the American people — evidence demonstrating his disregard for the rule of law, his cruelty on Jan. 6 and the deep flaws in character that make him unfit to serve as president. The Supreme Court should understand this reality and conclude without delay that no immunity applies here.”