“There is no real disagreement in the committee,” Wyoming spokeswoman Liz Cheney told CNN’s State of the Union. The New York Times reported differently on Sunday, in a report titled: “The January 6 panel has evidence of Trump’s criminal prosecution, but divides the mission.” “The debate focuses on whether the referral – a largely symbolic act – would politically deter it by distorting the Justice Department’s expanded investigation into the January 6 attack and what led to it,” the paper said. Citing “members and aides,” the Times reported that such sources were reluctant to support a referral because it would give the impression that Democrats had asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump. Cheney said: “We have not made a decision on referrals to the committee. [but] it’s really clear that what President Trump had to do with, what a lot of people around him did, that they knew was awful. That they did it anyway. “ He spoke two days after CNN reported that the Jan. 6 commission had received text messages in which Donald Trump Jr. presented tactics of overthrowing Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, just two days after election day. A top legal authority, Harvard professor Laurence Tribe, called the text a “smoking rifle” to prove guilt in Donald Trump’s inner circle. Cheney cited a decision that “was issued by [federal] Judge [David] Carter a few weeks ago, where he concluded that the president of the United States was more likely to be involved in criminal activity. “I think what we have seen is a huge and well-organized and well-planned effort that used multiple tools to try to overthrow the election.” Cheney pleaded guilty this week to Proud Boys member Charles Donohoe plotting to attack the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory. This plan for the events in Washington on January 6, which was partly transmitted by Trump, was “the definition of insurgency” and “absolutely creepy.” However, Cheney will not consider whether Trump should be prosecuted. He said: “The committee… has a huge amount of testimonies and documents that I think show very, very clearly the extent of the planning and the organization and the goal, and the goal was absolutely to try to. Intervene in this formal process. And it’s absolutely clear that they knew what they were doing was wrong. “They knew it was illegal.” Asked if there was a disagreement in the committee, Cheney said there was not. “The committee is working in a truly collaborative way to discuss these issues,” he said, adding: “We will continue to work together to do so. Therefore, I would not characterize it as a disagreement in the committee… and I am sure that we will work to reach an agreement on all the issues we face “. Cheney said Ivanka Trump’s testimony this week was “useful, as was the testimony of several hundred others who appeared before the committee.” He said Trump’s aides, Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, who were referred to the Justice Department for criminal defamation charges this week, were “contemptuous” for refusing to testify. On Sunday, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives who ousted Cheney from the leadership because of her involvement in the Jan. 6 commission, issued a statement in support of the pro-Russian struggle for democracy in Ukraine. Asked if she saw irony in such words from a man who sided with Trump over the Capitol attack, Cheney said: “What I would say is that what is happening in Ukraine today is a reminder that democracy is fragile and that democracy must be defended. each of us who is able to do it has an obligation to do so. “Clearly, I think leader McCarthy has failed to do that, he has failed to put his oath in the constitution above his personal political gains.”
