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Liz Cheney Is Using The Jan. 6 Committee To Persecute An Activist Running A Super PAC To Unseat Her

Liz Cheney on Jan. 6 Annniversary

Liz Cheney is using the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 to persecute those working to unseat her at home.

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Wyoming nominal Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is using the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 to persecute those working to unseat her at home.

On Tuesday, the committee on which Cheney serves as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked vice chair unveiled subpoenas for three advisers to the Trump family. Andrew Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, who’ve advised Donald Trump Jr., and Ross Worthington, who played a role in drafting President Donald Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, were each called to hand over documents and testify before the committee between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2.

“The Select Committee is seeking information from individuals who were involved with the rally at the Ellipse,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. “Protestors became rioters who carried out a violent attempt to derail the peaceful transfer of power. We have reason to believe the individuals we’ve subpoenaed today have relevant information.”

Except Surabian, who is advising the Wyoming Values Political Action Committee (PAC) in support of Cheney’s primary challenger attorney Harriet Hageman, had no involvement with the White House protest that the probe has sought to conflate with the violence at the Capitol.

“During the time period that the rally was being organized, Mr. Surabian was overseeing a Super PAC in support of Republican Senate candidates in Georgia,” Surabian attorney Daniel Bean said in a statement. “Mr. Surabian is a close friend to Donald Trump Jr. and is running a Super PAC that opposes the reelection of one of the members of the committee. Accordingly, we believe this is nothing more than harassment of the Committee’s political opponents and is un-American to the core.”

Schwartz did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.

Cheney faces a competitive primary for a fourth term as one of the most unpopular Republicans in the country. Out of three surveys conducted since Cheney’s escalated feud in the election’s aftermath, Cheney failed to land more than 25 percent support among likely primary voters, far short of the 40 percent vote share she earned in her first 2016 House primary. 

Running again a state Trump won by a higher margin than anywhere else in the country just more than a year ago, Wyoming Republicans soured on the lawmaker after the then-House GOP Conference chair joined Democrats in their snap-impeachment of the outgoing president. Nine Republicans ultimately joined Cheney in her vote to convict, several of whom already announced their intent to do so calling into question the influence of her highly publicized stunt.

The at-large representative was then censured by her own party back home. After surviving a referendum on her number three role in House leadership, an emboldened Cheney escalated her feud with the ex-president and continued to antagonize the Republican base. By May, Cheney was overwhelmingly kicked from her post in GOP leadership and in November, the Wyoming Republican Party voted to no longer recognize its sole member of the House as Republican.

The Jan. 6 Committee, meanwhile, has turned to investigating political dissidents in Democrats’ domestic war on terror, with subpoenas to Trump allies and telecom companies to preserve documents of private citizens.

On Sunday, Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who was barred by Pelosi from serving as a Republican-appointed member of the committee, announced he would refuse the committee’s request for voluntary cooperation with the witch hunt probe.

“I have no relevant information that would assist the Select Committee in advancing any legitimate legislative purpose,” Jordan wrote to Chairman Thompson. “I cannot speak to Speaker Pelosi’s failure to ensure the appropriate security posture at the Capitol complex in advance of well-publicized protests on January 6, 2021.”

While the committee’s request of a colleague’s cooperation was voluntary, the probe has made good on threats to those outside the lower chamber to hold those who refuse work with the partisan show trial in contempt. In December, ex-House member from North Carolina and former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows became the third the probe voted to hold in contempt, after former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark.