Liz Cheney & Bennie Thompson, the Jan. 6 Committee’s Stewards

Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, and Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, held eight televised hearings this spring and summer, interviewing live witnesses and playing taped depositions from others. Some of the disclosures were explosive, with Trump’s advisers saying he was told again and again that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, that there was no legal basis to challenge the outcome and that the armed demonstrators at the Capitol needed to be called off. The hearings also showcased the extent to which Trump and his allies tried to keep their grip on power, pressuring officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, to intervene. (At a follow-up session in October, the panel voted to subpoena Trump. He filed a lawsuit seeking to avoid testifying or providing documentation.)

Cheney, a stalwart conservative and once-rising star in the GOP, was a persistent critic of Trump following the attack. That and her vote to impeach him for his role made her a pariah in the party. The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, she’s been Wyoming’s lone House member for three terms, but she lost her reelection primary in August to a Trump-backed challenger. Thompson is also chair of the Committee on Homeland Security but will lose that post in January when Republicans take over control of the House. The committee’s charter expires at the end of the year, but it expects to issue a final report before then, and there’s a chance it will make criminal referrals to the US Department of Justice, perhaps even targeting Trump.