"Chilling moment": Liz Cheney says she secretly listened to phone call revealing Trump's Jan. 6 plot

Trump's lawyers were unaware the Republican was on the call — and she immediately notified Senate official

By Gabriella Ferrigine

Staff Writer

Published December 5, 2023 10:18AM (EST)

Liz Cheney attends Liz Cheney in Conversation with David Rubenstein at The 92nd Street Y, New York on June 26, 2023 in New York City. (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)
Liz Cheney attends Liz Cheney in Conversation with David Rubenstein at The 92nd Street Y, New York on June 26, 2023 in New York City. (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in her upcoming book "Oath and Honor," disclosed the moment she learned of former President Donald Trump's plot to paint his loss of the 2020 presidential election as fraudulent, calling it "a very dangerous and chilling moment." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow read an excerpt from the book, detailing a phone call made two days before the deadly Capitol attacks in which the former president's legal team allegedly discussed the fake elector scheme. Cheney, who noted that Trump's attorneys were unaware that she was listening in on the call, also observed that former Vice President Mike Pence was acting in cooperation with the plans at that time. 

“Listening to them describe how these fake electors were going to be used and the fact that they anticipated that Vice President Pence was gonna use them to refuse to count the legitimate electors was certainly a moment of intense concern,” Cheney wrote, also noting that she fled to the House parliamentarian after the call concluded to try and halt the plan. “It was very clear that there were not a lot of good answers to that,” Cheney added. The former legislator observed that Pence "ultimately of course did his duty bravely," writing that she soon learned he was also speaking to the Senate parliamentarian. Pence would also eventually testify before a grand jury investigating Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election.