Sen. Mitt Romney isn’t buying the notion that former President Donald Trump accidentally called a witness who could appear before the House select Jan. 6 committee.
The Utah Republican called the allegation Rep. Liz Cheney, the GOP vice chairwoman of the bipartisan panel, made at the end of the committee’s last hearing “very serious.”
“After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation — a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings. That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump’s call and instead alerted their lawyer to the call,” the Wyoming congresswoman said.
“Their lawyer alerted us, and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice. Let me say one more time, we will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously.”
Romney dismissed speculation that Trump might have pocket-dialed the witness by accident, according to The Hill.
“I can’t imagine why he’d have a witness on his cellphone, making a pocket-dial, so that’s not terribly credible. If in fact he was calling a witness, that allegation is very serious,” Romney said.
Since Cheney’s assertion, NBC News, citing a source familiar with the issue, reported that the witness is a member of the White House support staff who was talking to the committee investigating the Capitol attack.
CNN first reported that the witness works at the White House.
The name of the staffer has not been revealed. But according to CNN, the White House support staffer in question “was not someone who routinely communicated with the former president.”
The same CNN report noted that the support staffer — who has spoken to congressional investigators — was “in a position to corroborate part of what (former Trump White House aide Cassidy) Hutchinson had said under oath.”
Hutchinson testified that Trump allegedly knew about the threat of violence before Jan. 6, 2021, and didn’t try to stop it, and he allegedly grabbed at a Secret Service officer who wouldn’t take him to the Capitol that day.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee chairman, told reporters Wednesday that the panel is “concerned” about the witness and it would be up to the Justice Department to determine if the call amounted to anything illegal.