Former President Donald Trump isn’t ready to move on from his long-running feud with former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, expressing support for putting Cheney on trial for treason in front of a military tribunal.
Trump shared content calling for a televised military tribunal for Cheney on his Truth Social platform in a show of support for the idea.
“ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON,” reads the post created by another user that Trump amplified on Truth Social. “RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS.”
Cheney then doubled down on her criticism of the former president, responding on X: “Donald — This is the type of thing that demonstrates yet again that you are not a stable adult — and are not fit for office.”
Cheney And Trump
She and Trump have sparred since the former president attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Cheney served as the vice chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, which held a series of prime-time hearings, then concluded Trump incited the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The committee sent referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice recommending he be criminally prosecuted.
The committee was bitterly opposed by many Trump supporters, who saw the panel as politically motivated and stacked against Trump. They and the former president also have said the panel ignored evidence that contradicted its desired narrative.
House Republicans issued a report this past spring finding that the committee deleted and destroyed certain pieces of evidence.
Trump endorsed Rep. Harriet Hageman in her 2022 challenge of Cheney and held a political rally with Hageman in Casper that May. Hageman ended up defeating Cheney in that election by about 38 percentage points.
Since leaving office at the end of 2022, Cheney has continued to oppose Trump, running The Great Task political action committee against his presidential campaign.
Military Tribunal?
It’s not clear why a military tribunal would be the appropriate venue for any kind of legal proceeding against or criminal prosecution of Cheney, considering nearly all of the actions she took against Trump happened after he left office and none during a time of war.
Military tribunals are designed to judicially try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers who also serve as jurors.
For example, former President George W. Bush’s administration frequently sought to use military tribunals to try suspected terrorists captured abroad and held at a prison camp at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Tucker Fagan, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Nuclear Section under President Ronald Reagan and the former Commander of F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, said the only military tribunals he is aware of the U.S. participating were the Nuremberg trials against former representatives of Nazi Germany after World War II.
In addition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a military tribunal for eight German prisoners accused of espionage and planning sabotage in the United States, six of whom were eventually sentenced to death.
Retribution
Some have expressed concern that if reelected president, Trump would use his position to mobilize the Justice Department against his political enemies.
During his debate with President Joe Biden last week, Trump told moderator Jake Tapper that he defined retribution as "success."
"We're going to make this country successful again because right now it's a failing nation," Trump said.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon in an interview last weekend also pushed back on the idea that any kind of retribution would be pursued.
“And what he says by retribution, he said, like he said last night on the debate stage, his retribution is a very successful, more successful second term. What we’re saying is we want justice. We want to have full investigations, and then if criminal charges come up, then criminal charges come up," Bannon told Jonathan Karl.
Earlier this week, Trump shared a post calling for the imprisonment of Democratic and Republican party leaders who have opposed him, containing images of President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his former vice president, Mike Pence.
Trump has said he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Biden and his family and has argued several times he believes he is justified in doing so because Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee criminal investigations against him.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
