In the wake of Republican Party officials wanting to punish GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their work on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, Fordham Law Professor Bruce Green, director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, published an op-ed in The Hill explaining why the accusations of professional misconduct against Cheney are “frankly ludicrous.”
In recent years, public officials of both parties have accused law enforcement authorities of “weaponizing” criminal law, particularly against political opponents. Now, Republicans in the House of Representatives have shown that it is not only the criminal law that can be illegitimately weaponized — the rules of professional conduct for lawyers can serve as an additional weapon.
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The subcommittee’s ostensible purposes were to investigate the security failures at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and to review the work of the January 6 Select Committee, the prior House committee appointed by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to investigate the events of January 6. But the subcommittee’s interim report is largely a hatchet job on Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the Republican member of the House who sacrificed her political career by breaking ranks to support President Trump’s impeachment and serve as vice chair of the January 6 Select Committee.
The interim report takes the position that, because Cheney is a lawyer, she engaged in professional misconduct in her work as a member of the January 6 Select Committee. In particular, the report accuses Cheney of breaking the rules for lawyers in her interactions with a witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, who had served as an assistant to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff.
The accusations of professional misconduct are frankly ludicrous.