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News Analysis
President-elect Donald J. Trump has never been shy about his desire to see his enemies punished. But he often shows a measure of caution about taking credit for potential prosecutions himself.
Dec. 18, 2024, 4:14 p.m. ET
For years, President-elect Donald J. Trump has made it known that people he believes to be his enemies should be prosecuted.
This week, his allies in Congress laid out a template for how to go after one of them in particular: Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming representative who has been a focus of Mr. Trump’s anger.
In a report released on Tuesday, House Republicans said Ms. Cheney should face an F.B.I. investigation for work she did for the congressional committee that examined Mr. Trump’s attempts to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election. They accused her of tampering with one of the committee’s star witnesses who gave damning testimony about Mr. Trump.
The recommendation had no binding authority, and any investigation of Ms. Cheney would have to be opened by Mr. Trump’s Justice Department once he enters office. Still, the House subcommittee’s report detailed a road map for what an inquiry might ultimately look like — while also relieving Mr. Trump of the potentially fraught step of explicitly ordering the inquiry himself.
Appearing to have it both ways, Mr. Trump seized on the House report on Wednesday morning, saying that it could present problems for Ms. Cheney, but avoiding responsibility for having been the cause of them.
“Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble based on the evidence obtained by the subcommittee, which states that ‘numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI,’” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
