President-elect Donald Trump has said repeatedly that the U.S. Representatives on the House Select Committee who accused Trump of inciting the January 6, 2021 riots on Capitol Hill, should be in jail.
MAGA faithful congressmen including Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) are proposing a new House select committee to re-investigate the Jan 6 riots and the “political influence” behind the original House Select Committee’s report, which Loudermilk has called “false.”
Georgetown Law professor Neal Katyal — former Acting Solicitor General of the U.S. Department of Justice who has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court — revealed his opinion regarding the proposed investigation of former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who led the House Select Committee and eventually broke with her party and endorsed and campaigned for Trump’s Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
.@neal_katyal on a Liz Cheney investigation: “It would fail right at the get go, not just because there’s no crime here or any credible allegation, but also because Liz Cheney, as a member of Congress at the time, is entitled to the constitutional protection of speech or debate… pic.twitter.com/dWWt5qv77R
— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) December 22, 2024
On Inside with Jen Psaki, Katyal was asked if Trump’s FBI could use the House investigation as a pretext to try to launch a probe into Cheney.
He replied: “They could try but it would fail right at the get go, not just because there’s no crime here or any credible allegation, but also because Liz Cheney, as a member of Congress at the time, is entitled to the constitutional protection of speech or debate immunity.”
He added, “It’s actually in the Constitution, unlike Trump’s claim about being absolutely immune when he was president.”
Note: Katyal succeeded Elena Kagan as DOJ Solicitor General when President Barack Obama chose her to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
Katyal, the author of the 2019 book Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump, is not easy to pigeonhole: he endorsed Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch and praised Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.