Liz Cheney Accused of Committing ‘Ethical Violation’ Over Jan. 6 Witness

New texts have emerged of alleged secret communication between Liz Cheney, former January 6 committee vice chair, and a key witness.
Former White House official Cassidy Hutchinson was due to testify that she saw then-President Donald Trump agreeing with January 6 rioters who were chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” the then-vice president.
Republican National Committee member, Harmeet Dhillon, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday: “This is a very serious ethical violation and lawyers can be disciplined by the bar for contacting a represented party concerning the subject matter of the representation, without the permission and knowledge of that party’s lawyer.”
The Congressional Committee on House Administration has issued a statement in which it says that Cheney, then a Republican congresswoman who was strongly opposed to Trump, had used third-party communications to arrange a meeting with Hutchinson before her 2022 testimony.
Cheney, who lost her seat later in 2022, has been a frequent target of pro-Trump Republicans. She announced this year that she will vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
In a statement, the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight said that its Republican chairman, Barry Loudermilk, “obtained never-before-seen correspondence between January 6 Select Committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney and Cassidy Hutchinson and in 2022, while Hutchinson was still a subject of the Select Committee’s investigation.”
The statement added: “In the months prior to Hutchinson’s explosive private and public testimony, Cheney communicated with Hutchinson, both directly and through an intermediary—Alyssa Farah Griffin—while Hutchinson was represented by her attorney, Stefan Passantino.”
Newsweek sought email comment from Cheney and Griffin on Wednesday.
It is clear from the communication that Griffin told Hutchinson that Cheney wanted “a follow up with you, with your lawyer that she and [January 6 committee lawyer] Dan George can lead.” This suggests that both Cheney and Griffin wanted to ensure that Hutchinson had legal representation at the meetings. The January 6 committee conducted six interviews of Hutchinson in total.
“Farah Griffin and Hutchinson knew each other from their time working together in the White House. Farah Griffin was one of the first former Trump administration officials to publicly criticize Trump in January 2021, and was publicly working with the Select Committee on its investigation,” the oversight committee’s statement reads.
Hutchinson and Griffin met in Washington, and the former told the latter that she had new information to give the January 6 committee.
“Her new testimony would include her never-before-heard story that alleged that President Trump agreed with rioters chanting ‘Hang Mike Pence,'” the statement reads.
“According to text messages, that appear to be from the encrypted messaging app Signal, between Hutchinson and Farah Griffin obtained by the Subcommittee, Cheney agreed to communicate with Hutchinson through Farah Griffin.
“However, it appears that Cheney knew communicating with Hutchinson while Hutchinson was represented by an attorney and a subject of the Select Committee’s investigation, without going through Hutchinson’s attorney, would be unethical” the statement continues.
“This is evident by Farah Griffin’s text to Hutchinson that Cheney’s ‘one concern was so long as [sic] you have counsel, she can’t really ethically talk to you without him,'” the oversight committee’s statement adds.