Pelosi appoints Liz Cheney to committee investigating Capitol attack

Washington, Jul 1 (EFE).- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday announced that Republican Congresswomen Liz Cheney will be one of the members of the select committee that will investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the US Capitol by a mob of followers of then-President Donald Trump.

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was ousted in May from her Republican Party leadership spot for having refuted and roundly denounced Trump’s unfounded claims that massive voter fraud in the November 2020 election “stole” reelection from him and awarded the presidency to Democrat Joe Biden.

Pelosi said at a press conference that she was “very honored and proud” that Cheney “has agreed to serve on the committee.”

“That gives us great confidence we’ll be able to work in a nonpartisan way,” the speaker added.

The appointment seeks to provide a bipartisan makeup to the committee, the creation of which was approved earlier this week by the House, which is controlled by the Democrats.

The idea is for the committee to be made up of 13 members, eight of them named by Pelosi and five selected by the leader of the GOP minority in the House, Kevin McCarthy, although Pelosi said she could veto any of his nominations.

However, to achieve greater partisan balance, Pelosi on Thursday used one of her eight appointments to tap Cheney, thus ensuring that the committee would include seven Democrats and six Republicans.

Cheney was not at the press conference at which Pelosi announced her nominations to the committee but she issued a statement later saying that she is “honored” to have been selected to serve on it.

“Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814,” she said on Thursday. “That day saw the most sacred space in our Republic overrun by an angry and violent mob attempting to stop the counting of electoral votes and threatening the peaceful transfer of power.”

“What happened on January 6th can never happen again,” the Wyoming congresswoman added. “Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious and non-partisan manner.”

Cheney was one of the 10 House GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection.”

“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said in her statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

The other members of the committee nominated by the House speaker are: Zoe Lofgren, Adam Schiff, Pete Aguilar, Stephanie Murphy, Jamie Raskin and Elaine Luria.

In addition, the committee will be headed by Bennie Thompson, who will have the authority to call witnesses and request documents from government agencies, including those tasked with intelligence matters.

The aim of the committee is to clarify why the attack occurred, who is responsible for it and what can be done to prevent similar situations in the future.

On Jan. 6, hundreds of Trump followers broke into the US Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election. Trump had been loudly proclaiming – starting long before the election itself – that fraud had denied him reelection.

Five people died in the attack – including one demonstrator shot by police and a police officer who was savagely attacked by rioters – and about 140 police and security officers were attacked by Trump-supporting demonstrators armed with axes, baseball bats, hockey sticks and other weapons, according to the authorities.

EFE