Liz Cheney's communications with star Jan 6 witness sought by House GOP investigators
House GOP investigators are seeking all communications between former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson and people related to the now-defunct House select committee probing Jan. 6, including the panel's former vice chair, ex-Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chairman of the Committee on House Administration’s oversight subcommittee, wrote to Hutchinson on Wednesday asking for her exchanges with Cheney, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, ex-White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House deputy chief Anthony Ornato, and Secret Service agent Robert Engel, among others.
Hutchinson, who published a memoir last year, was also asked for "all communications referencing or referring to potential publishing or book deals or related compensation."
DOJ WILL NOT TURN OVER BIDEN'S RECORDED INTERVIEW WITH SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR TO CONGRESS
The former Trump administration aide was a star witness for the Jan. 6 committee, set up by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She had testified that former President Trump physically lunged at Engel, who was his driver, when the agent refused to drive him to the U.S. Capitol. Trump and others linked to the story have denied her claims.
She and Cheney appear to have grown close since then. Hutchinson lauded Cheney in a September 2023 MSNBC interview: "Liz Cheney is the leader that we all need to aspire to be, and she is the leader that we need as a country to come together and find people to elect people like Liz Cheney."
Loudermilk’s subcommittee, which has been investigating the House Jan. 6 probe, accused the Democrat-led committee of having "failed to properly archive their records, including as many as 900 interview summaries or transcripts, over one terabyte of digital data, and over 100 deleted or encrypted documents."
"Therefore, the Subcommittee must now determine what documents were not properly archived, and assess what documents are necessary to accomplish a productive investigation. The Subcommittee has no choice but to repeat much of the work of the Select Committee to understand their investigative findings," he wrote.
The Georgia Republican acknowledged that Hutchinson had provided his committee with documentation that she had also given the Jan. 6 panel, but said she did not produce "all records, notes, or documents prepared by you for interviews with the Select Committee or the Department of Justice," which Loudermilk asked for earlier this year.
He also noted that some of the information she produced – including messages between herself and former Trump officials John Ratcliffe and Kash Patel – were not archived by the Jan. 6 committee.
HOUSE GOP REPORT ALLEGES JAN 6 COMMITTEE 'DELETED RECORDS AND HID EVIDENCE'
"As such, the Subcommittee is working to determine why the Select Committee did not archive these documents produced by or related to you. Given the extensive interviews, lengthy errata sheet, and ex parte conversations with Select Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, the failure to archive certain parts of your production is concerning," Loudermilk wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to an attorney for Hutchinson and a representative for Cheney for comment.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the former Jan. 6 committee chair, defended his panel's handling of documents.
"This letter was not addressed to me, but I can tell you that Mr. Loudermilk’s previous correspondence to me has been riddled with significant factual errors," Thompson said. "As I have said time and again, the Select Committee archived its official records in accordance with House rules. It seems Mr. Loudermilk is using this fishing expedition to distract from the fact that their release of security camera footage is completely failing to provide any evidence to support extreme MAGA Republican conspiracies about Jan. 6 – and is only bolstering the work we did in investigating the circumstances surrounding that terrible day."