Former President Donald Trump’s top GOP nemesis Liz Cheney will serve on a committee created by House Democrats to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, announced the makeup of the panel a day after the House voted mostly along party lines to create the special committee.
Cheney, who is Wyoming’s sole representative in Congress and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has become a top critic of Trump. She voted to impeach Trump earlier this year for inciting the Jan. 6 riot and was among two Republicans to vote in favor of creating the investigatory body.
Cheney has declared that Trump should play no role in the party’s future.
The House Republican Conference earlier this year voted to strip Cheney of her No. 3 leadership title after her repeated public criticisms of the former president distracted from the party’s efforts to retake the House in the midterm elections.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican and Trump ally, hasn’t indicated whether he’ll appoint Republicans to fill the four additional GOP slots on the panel.
Eight Democrats will serve on the committee, and it will be led by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.
“We are committed to doing something that honors the vision of our founders,” Pelosi said. “It’s going to be high-level and justify the support of the American people. It’s not political.”
House Democrats and two Republicans voted to create the special panel after Senate Republicans blocked a House-passed bill that would have created a bipartisan and independent commission to investigate the riots.
Democrats want to investigate the motives behind the attack and who may have provoked or sponsored the attack. Most Republicans blame Trump for inciting the riot by claiming the election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden.
The rioters stormed the building after Trump delivered a speech blocks away to thousands of supporters as Congress voted to certify Biden’s presidential victory.
“They came to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi selected House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, to serve on the panel. Schiff led the first impeachment trial against Trump and promoted the debunked narrative that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
The committee will have subpoena power, and McCarthy may be called as a witness.
On the day of the riot, as lawmakers desperately sought help from the White House in defense of the Capitol, McCarthy held a tense call with Trump, asking him to call off the intruders.
Trump appeared unconcerned about the attack and accused McCarthy of not caring about the election results that Trump was questioning.
Pelosi deflected questions about McCarthy’s possible testimony.
“Our purpose is not any phone call McCarthy made or something like that. It’s about protecting our country from the negative forces that provoked the attack on the Capitol,” Pelosi said.
