Here Are The Top 10 Lies Of Liz Cheney And The January 6th Committee

Disgraced ex-Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was awarded one of the highest civilian honors last week after House Republicans referred the vice chair of the since-disbanded Select Committee on Jan. 6 to the Justice Department for criminal charges.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden presented Cheney with the Presidential Medal of Freedom along with Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chaired the Democrats’ Soviet-style inquisition on the Capitol riot, for their work running the probe. In December, however, the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., released a nearly 130-page review of the Jan. 6 Committee’s work, concluding Cheney should face a criminal investigation for “witness tampering.”

“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,” the report said. Cheney had coordinated to circumvent Hutchinson’s attorney even as the vice chair of the Jan. 6 panel threatened legal action against anyone who attempted to influence witness testimony. The textbook case of projection was just one in a series of episodes wherein House investigators deputized by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi concealed truths surrounding the riot on Jan. 6.

1. January 6th Was An ‘Insurrection’

Democrats on the Jan. 6 panel and beyond deployed the term “insurrection” to characterize the two hours of violence at the Capitol like they collectively developed Tourette’s as a nasty side effect of Trump Derangement Syndrome. If what happened at the Capitol, however, were actually an attempted insurrection, then why weren’t any of the Jan. 6 defendants ever charged and convicted of “insurrection?” Because the term was used as nothing but a charged political phrase to frame Trump and his supporters as existential threats to democracy itself.

2. Democracy Almost Died

In her post-congressional memoir published in 2023, Cheney solemnly wrote “we almost lost our republic that day,” referencing the demonstrations on Jan. 6, 2021. At a public hearing in 2022, Chairman Thompson similarly said, “our system nearly failed and our democratic foundation” was almost “destroyed.” Except such hyperbolic claims never had any merit. Lawmakers were promptly escorted to secure locations after security at the Capitol was compromised, and Congress was able to reconvene just hours after. The continuity of government was never jeopardized, despite what the Jan. 6 Committee convinced themselves and their supporters to believe.

3. Trump Incited The ‘Insurrection’

The Jan. 6 Committee concluded its investigation with criminal referrals for President Trump of having incited, assisted, or aided and comforted an “insurrection.” The recommendation for criminal charges rests on the conspiracy peddled by the Jan. 6 Committee that because Trump spoke at the White House on the day of the riot, he must have inspired his supporters to take over the Capitol during the joint session of Congress. An honest examination of the transcript from Trump’s Ellipse speech, however, shows the president explicitly demanded that his supporters protest “peacefully and patriotically.” The mob gathered at the Capitol, meanwhile, had already breached the first barriers before the president had even finished speaking.

4. Trump Was Enthusiastic About The Violence

President Trump, the Jan. 6 Committee said, was not just apathetic about the violence, but was enthusiastic, according to testimony from the panel’s star witness, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Trump, Hutchinson said in her public testimony, approved of demonstrators who were demanding to “hang” the vice president. But House investigators who reviewed the Jan. 6 Committee’s charges found “no evidence that President Trump agreed with rioters chanting ‘hang Mike Pence.'”

5. Trump Tried To Hijack Limousine To Riot At The Capitol Himself

One of Hutchinson’s most hysterical claims was that President Trump assaulted Secret Service personnel to take over a government vehicle and drive himself to the Capitol where he could join the rioters. Hutchinson, however, was immediately discredited by her own sources following her public appearance and was further undermined in the nearly 130-page review of the Jan. 6 Committee’s conduct last month. In fact, a new transcript with a Secret Service driver kept under seal by Cheney’s team directly contradicted Hutchinson’s tale.

“I did not see him reach. He never grabbed the steering wheel,” the driver had told investigators on the Jan. 6 panel. “I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all.”

6. Trump Dismissed Need For National Guard

In her memoir, Cheney characterized Trump as negligent in his role to deploy the National Guard ahead of electoral certification.

“To be clear, the issue was not that the Secret Service failed to brief those up the chain at the White House about the threat,” Cheney wrote. “It appeared to the Committee that this information was being conveyed up the chain, including directly to Mark Meadows and President Trump.”

“With the weight of the intelligence we received via Homeland Security, it is exceptionally difficult to believe that anyone in the White House with access to this information could have failed to recognize this obvious menace,” she wrote.

Except Trump was adamant about local and congressional officials preparing for mass demonstrations by demanding pre-emptive deployment of 10,000 troops from the National Guard. Cheney’s committee just covered up Trump’s plea by concealing another transcript from a witness lawmakers tried to discredit after Pelosi refused to accept federal reinforcements multiple times in the days leading up to the riot.

7. Demonstrations Were Mostly Violent

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson flipped the Jan. 6 Committee’s narrative of an excessively violent demonstration on its head when he aired additional footage from the Capitol released to his team by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy two years ago.

“These are the pictures you’ve seen of Jan. 6,” Carlson said on his now-defunct prime-time program. “But it turns out there’s quite a bit of video you haven’t seen. And that video tells a very different story about what happened on Jan. 6.”

Carlson’s producers reviewed more than 40,000 hours of security footage kept under seal by House Democrats revealing a far different demonstration at the Capitol than the few scenes exploited by the Jan. 6 Committee to depict what they claimed was an eruption of domestic terrorism.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah mocked the hysteria from the committee when Cheney reposted clips of the riot featuring the most turbulent scenes in response to Carlson’s program.

“Liz, we’ve seen footage like that a million times. You made sure we saw that — and nothing else,” Lee wrote on X. “It’s the other stuff — what you deliberately hid from us — that we find so upsetting.”

8. Capitol Police Officer Was Killed In Riot

The New York Times quietly corrected a story blaming Capitol rioters for the death of deceased officer Brian Sicknick, but members of the Jan. 6 Committee never have. In fact, during a hearing months after a report from the D.C. medical examiner’s office concluded Officer Sicknick died of natural causes, then-Rep. Elaine Lauria claimed he “succumbed to his injuries” from the riot “the night of January 7th.”

The only two people to die directly from the riot were female Trump supporters Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by a Capitol police officer promoted two years after the riot, and Roseanne Boyland, who was trampled. Footage aired by Carlson in the Jan. 6 tapes show Sicknick, the officer allegedly bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher, vigorously walking around the Capitol following the hit.

9. Loudermilk Gave Rioters ‘Reconnaissance Tours’

In the summer of 2022, House Democrats accused Rep. Loudermilk of giving “reconnaissance tours” ahead of the “attack on the Capitol” after viewing security footage of the Georgia lawmaker escorting constituents around the building.

“The FBI totally cleared them,” Loudermilk told Carlson when the network host aired the Jan. 6 tapes. “The committee knew this before they actually made their accusations against me.”

10. The Jan. 6 Committee Was Legitimate

Then-Speaker Pelosi violated House rules when she banned minority representation on her Select Committee to investigate Jan. 6. The unprecedented move to bar Republican lawmakers from the committee meant Cheney had misled witnesses and federal agencies about the panel’s legitimate bipartisanship. Because House rules dictate that ranking committee members must be appointed by the minority party, Cheney, who was appointed by the Democrat speaker at the time, served as the panel’s vice chair.

The Select Committee was ostensibly established “to investigate and report upon” the objective “facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement” in the course of the Capitol riot as outlined by the committee’s establishing resolution. Yet Pelosi’s commission instead targeted private citizens who exercised their constitutional right of free assembly. The legitimacy of the committee’s actions has always remained in question, since Congress is not one of the branches of government tasked with investigating alleged crimes of private citizens.

Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and the co-author of "Fat and Unhappy: How 'Body Positivity' Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself)." He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan's email newsletter here. Buy "Fat and Unhappy" here.