Donald Trump rang in the New Year on Monday by accusing his GOP nemesis Liz Cheney of deleting and destroying evidence from the Jan. 6 committee in an act of supposed “EXTREME SABOTAGE” against him.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the 2024 Republican frontrunner also asserted that evidence is now “gone” that would have supported his repeatedly debunked claim of having ordered 10,000 troops to protect the Capitol ahead of the insurrection. Trump provided no evidence to back up his allegations.
“Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney, who suffers from TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), and was defeated for Congress by the largest margin for a sitting Congressman or Congresswoman in the history of our Country, ILLEGALLY DELETE & DESTROY most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits,” Trump began the post.
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“THIS ACT OF EXTREME SABOTAGE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR MY LAWYERS TO PROPERLY PREPARE FOR, AND PRESENT, A PROPER DEFENSE OF THEIR CLIENT, ME,” he continued. “All of the information on Crazy Nancy Pelosi turning down 10,000 soldiers that I offered to to [sic] guard the Capitol Building, and beyond, is gone.”
The former president and his supporters have repeated the claim about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the purported order to send 10,000 National Guard troops to the Capitol complex despite it being debunked years ago. Trump never actually ordered soldiers to protect the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but instead made an offhand remark in a meeting that was “unrelated to the events of Jan. 6, based on an inflated expectation of the crowd that would gather that day,” according to The Washington Post.
A Pelosi spokesperson has also previously dismissed Trump’s version of events as “completely made up.” The final report of the Jan. 6 committee similarly concluded that Trump “did not order the National Guard to protect the U.S. Capitol,” but he had instead merely “floated the idea of having 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by leftwing counter-protestors.”
“Seems like someone is starting 2024 hangry,” Cheney wrote in an X post Tuesday. Tagging Trump, she added: “you and your lawyers have had the J6 cmttee materials (linked below) plus the grand jury info & much more for months. Lying about the evidence in all caps won’t change the facts. A public trial will show it all.”
Cheney’s post quote-tweeted a separate update she’d made in August carrying a link to Jan. 6 committee evidence and the panel’s hearings.
In his post Monday, Trump went on to explain how, in his mind, his new and unsupported claim about Cheney destroying evidence affects his ongoing immunity battle with special counsel Jack Smith. (The former president’s claim about Cheney losing her seat by the “largest margin” of a sitting member of Congress is, incidentally, also inaccurate).
“The ridiculous Deranged Jack Smith case on Immunity, which the most respected legal minds in the Country say I am fully entitled to, is now completely compromised and should be thrown out and terminated, JUST LIKE THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS DID TO THE EVIDENCE!” Trump wrote.
Trump claims he should be immune from prosecution relating to his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election because he was president at the time. In a court filing over the weekend, Smith and his team said Trump’s argument could “undermine democracy” and “threatens to license presidents to commit crimes to remain in office.”
