During an interview this past weekend on the CBS program “Face The Nation,” former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming condemned the idea that criminal defendants with cases originating in the violence of January 6, 2021, are “hostages.”
The language has been used by Republican political figures including Donald Trump and Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the latter of whom took over Cheney’s own former role in party leadership among House Republicans.
To be clear, those charged over alleged participation in the Capitol violence of early 2021 have throughout their cases had available the procedural protections already established for defendants across the justice system. Additionally, their fates have not been decided solely by a single individual or a very small group, with input instead from grand juries, trial juries, prosecutors, and judges, alongside the assumption of oversight from higher-ranking officials at the Justice Department and opportunities for appeal — theoretically all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And a large share of those charged for allegedly joining the January 6 attack have themselves pleaded guilty!
“It’s outrageous, and it’s disgusting,” Cheney said of the “hostages” language. “And if you go and you look at what individuals have been convicted for who are incarcerated, you’ll find, you know, extensively, these are people who were involved in violence against police officers in the assault on the Capitol. And it is really – it’s disgraceful for Donald Trump to be saying what he’s saying. And then for those who are attempting to enable him or attempting to further their own political careers to repeat it, it’s a disgrace. And you cannot say that you are a member of a party that believes in the rule of law, you can’t say that you’re pro-law enforcement, if you then go out and you say these people are – quote – ‘hostages.'”
Trump — the only Republican reasonably eyeing, at present, the party’s presidential nomination for this year’s election — talks consistently about potentially pardoning rioters.
