Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), vice chair of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, previewed what to expect from the panel’s upcoming public hearings in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Thursday.
Citing the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, Cheney noted that the vice president, who presides over the Senate, does not have the authority to refuse to count a state’s certified slate of electoral votes.
Cheney went on to take aim at former President Trump’s bogus claims of a “stolen” election due to widespread fraud. Cheney said that the panel’s hearings will demonstrate that there was “no massive secret fraud” that occurred during the 2020 presidential election.
“While some degree of fraud occurs in every election, there was no evidence of fraud on a scale that could have changed this one,” Cheney wrote. “As the Select Committee will demonstrate in hearings later this year, no foreign power corrupted America’s voting machines, and no massive secret fraud changed the election outcome.”
Cheney added that the committee’s public hearings will also show how election fraud falsehoods led to the deadly Capitol insurrection last year.
“Trump ignored the rulings of the courts and launched a massive campaign to mislead the public,” Cheney wrote. “Our hearings will show that these falsehoods provoked the violence on Jan. 6.”
Cheney pointed to Trump’s lawyers beginning to “pay the price for spreading these lies,” citing the suspension of Rudy Giuliani’s law license because he “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large.”
Cheney concluded the opinion column by pushing back at proponents of the Big Lie who accuse the committee of conducting a “tainted” and “political” investigation.
“Those who do not wish the truth of Jan. 6 to come out have predictably resorted to attacking the process—claiming it is tainted and political,” Cheney wrote. “Our hearings will show this charge to be wrong.”
Cheney’s op-ed comes as the committee gears up to hold public hearings. Earlier this week, member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told MSNBC that the panel is hoping to begin hearings in the spring.
“But we are determined to get to those hearings quickly in the spring, hoping in April, certainly no later than May,” Raskin said. “And then to get a report out to the American people about what happened.”
Last month, Bloomberg News reported that the committee is reportedly considering holding its upcoming public hearings during primetime hours.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who chairs the committee, told Bloomberg News that the panel views the possibility of primetime as a way for the public to have “the best opportunity” to hear testimony and evaluate evidence.
Thompson added that “maybe a series of hearings” is on the table, which he estimated at the time could happen in late March or early April. Thompson noted that the committee was still “working toward” a set date.
Additionally, the committee has also reportedly considered hosting more dramatic presentations after the panel learned of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ damning texts related to his involvement in Trump’s election efforts.
