Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Former President Donald Trump accused former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) of destroying evidence connected to the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, adding that the move impacted the work of his legal team.
In a statement on Truth Social, the former president said Ms. Cheney illegally destroyed the evidence from the House Jan. 6 committee, saying that it would have aided his legal challenge on whether he is immune from prosecution or not, and he also criticized special counsel Jack Smith.
“All of the information on [former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] turning down 10,000 soldiers that I offered to to [sic] guard the Capitol Building, and beyond, is gone,” his statement said. “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!”
He asked “why did American Disaster Liz Cheney .... illegally delete & destroy most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits,” adding that it’s an “act of extreme sabotage” that makes it difficult for his attorneys to properly prepare for and defend against.
He did not provide any further details for the assertion in his Truth Social post.
Ms. Cheney, who overwhelmingly lost her reelection bid during the 2022 Republican primary for Wyoming’s at-large House seat, has been frequently critical of President Trump and was one of several House Republicans to vote to impeach him for a second time. She served as the co-chair of the House Jan. 6 sub-committee.
In an X post on Tuesday, Ms. Cheney responded to the claims and said that the committee evidence is available online. “You and your lawyers have had the J6 cmttee materials (linked below) plus the grand jury info & much more for months,” she wrote to the former president. “Lying about the evidence in all caps won’t change the facts. A public trial will show it all.”
Last month, Ms. Cheney suggested that she may consider a possible third-party run for the 2024 election and again criticized President Trump’s presidential bid. A final decision from her will come in the next several months, she said.
Elaborating the claim that former House Speaker Pelosi turned down 10,000 soldiers, the former president told NBC’s “Meet the Press” several months ago that “I understand that the police testified against her, the chief very strongly against her, the Capitol police, great people.
“They testified against her, and they burned all the evidence. OK? They burned all the evidence. They destroyed all the evidence about Nancy Pelosi,” President Trump said in September.
“She has authority over the Capitol,” he added. “National Guard not coming? I asked her [for them] to be there three days in advance, and she turned it down.”
Ms. Pelosi has said that the request for National Guard soldiers wasn’t officially ever made and has disputed the former president’s claims.
“The mayor of D.C. gave us a letter saying that she turns it down. OK, we have it. Nancy Pelosi also was asked, and she turned it down. The police commissioner of Capitol police,” the former president said, adding, “Capitol police said that he wanted it, and Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t accept it. She’s responsible for Jan. 6.”
The former speaker is “responsible, and the Jan. 6 Committee refused to interview her,” President Trump told NBC.
In response to President Trump’s claims, Ms. Pelosi’s office cited “numerous independent fact-checkers” that she “did not plan her own assassination” on Jan. 6. “As our office has said before, the former president’s allegations are completely made up,” a representative for the longtime California congresswoman added at the time.
The Capitol Police Board is the body that makes decisions on whether National Guard troops should be called in. That board is comprised of the House sergeant at arms, the Senate sergeant at arms, and the architect of the Capitol. They opted against calling the Guard on Jan. 6 but backup was eventually requested after the Capitol breach started, according to multiple news reports.
Both the House and Senate sergeant-at-arms resigned after the Jan. 6 incident. Officials on the board as well as former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund have publicly disputed the others’ accounts on what happened that day.
Mr. Sund had told the Washington Post that he sought assistance before the Jan. 6 breach but said they were delayed or denied, and he also faulted the U.S. intelligence community. The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the Pentagon, he also wrote in a later book, failed to provide clear intelligence ahead of time.
The Epoch Times has contacted Ms. Pelosi’s office for comment Friday on the latest claims.