Cheney: Trump won’t be allowed to turn Jan. 6 testimony into ‘circus’

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Sunday said the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will not allow former President Trump to turn his testimony to the panel into a “circus.”

Cheney told moderator Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the committee would treat any deposition with the former president with “great seriousness.”

“We are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath,” Cheney, one of two Republicans on the panel, said. “It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves.”

“He’s not going to turn this into a circus. This isn’t going to be first debate against [President] Biden and the circus and the food fight that became,” the lawmaker added.

The House committee, which wrapped up its final hearing on the Jan. 6 attack this month, unanimously voted to subpoena Trump before it formally issued a subpoena to the former president.

Lawmakers are probing 19 areas of interest, including many covered during the series of hearings the committee held over the summer, in the subpoena.

They include potential communications seeking to evaluate former Vice President Mike Pence’s role in certifying the 2020 election as well as efforts to communicate with state lawmakers, election officials and leaders at the Justice Department about the 2020 election.

Trump, who has repeatedly attacked the committee amid its investigation, has called the subpoena a political stunt but has not directly said whether he will testify.

Cheney on Sunday reiterated that the committee is conducting its business in a formal manner and has laid out what the former president would have to do to comply.

“This is a far too serious set of issues and we made clear exactly what his obligations are,” she said.