Cheney urges court to hold Jan. 6 trial before election: 'He knows how damaging that will be'
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said it was critical that former President Trump’s federal election interference case goes to trial before voters select their next president in November as she called on the Supreme Court to recognize Trump’s appeal as a delay tactic.
“It cannot be the case that a president of the United States can attempt to overturn an election and seize power and that our justice system is incapable of holding a trial, of holding him to account, before the next election,” Cheney said at a Wednesday event at Drake University in Iowa. “That cannot be the case.”
Trump’s legal team has sought delays in each of his four criminal cases, citing various factors, ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
His federal election interference case — which some critics see as the most important to resolve before November — is on hold until the Supreme Court rules on Trump's claim that he should be immune from criminal prosecution for all actions taken while in office. The Supreme Court will hear the case April 25.
Cheney — who served as vice chair of the House committee that investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss — said Trump, despite his claims otherwise, has all the evidence from the special counsel investigation that resulted in the federal indictment against him, and he has all the evidence from the Jan. 6 select committee.
Cheney said she suspects Trump "knows how damaging" the evidence is and, therefore, is trying to delay the trial.
“If you look at what Donald Trump is doing now, and if you look at the extensive effort that he has undertaken to prevent the Jan. 6 trial from going forward before his election, the reason he's doing that is because he knows, first of all, he has … all of that evidence,” Cheney said, referring to evidence from the House committee, the special counsel and grand jury, including transcripts of testimony from members of his administration.
“And so, Donald Trump knows what the most senior members of his administration — his vice president, his attorney general, his acting attorney general, his acting secretary of defense — he knows what all of those people said to the grand jury, and he knows how damaging that will be to him,” Cheney added, in remarks first highlighted by Mediaite.
On Trump’s presidential immunity claim, Cheney cautioned the Supreme Court to “recognize that what he’s doing is a delaying tactic” and said that allowing for further delays is “itself, suppression of evidence.”
“The Supreme Court, you know, I trust that they will deal in a responsible and expeditious fashion with this appeal,” Cheney said, “but recognize that taking action that will result in further delay in preventing the American people from seeing that evidence in open court, is itself suppression of the evidence, that the American people have a right to see that evidence. And the court ought to recognize that.”
A spokesperson for Trump's campaign, Steven Cheung, fired back at Cheney in an emailed statement, writing, "Of course Shotgun Liz would advocate for weaponizing the justice system to meddle in an election. She clearly suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome."