WATCH: January 6 Committee Honcho Liz Cheney Pushes Hard for DOJ to Criminally Charge Trump

Rep. Liz Cheney pushed hard for Attorney Merrick Garland to criminally charge former President Donald Trump for his part in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt has been rolling out bits and pieces of her exclusive interview with the embattled congresswoman, who has served as something of a ramrod for the anti-Trump movement by virtue of her vice chairmanship of the January 6 committee.

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 — Hunt asked Cheney to read the rapidly-accumulating tea leaves about the DoJ investigation, and Cheney pulled no punches in advocating for charging Trump:

KASIE HUNT: Do you think that the Biden Justice Department is going to stop him from becoming president again?

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): I think that the Justice Department is going to follow the facts and the evidence, I think that they’ve clearly seen significant activity in terms of, you know, the individuals that they now have testifying in front of grand jury in D.C. And I think they’re taking their obligation seriously. I think we’ve certainly seen in our hearings, when you have the former Attorney General, former White House Counsel, former acting Attorney General, former Deputy Attorney General, when you have individuals who served Donald Trump, who were nominated by him and who served at the highest levels, you know, who have testified in front of the committee, and made clear, for example, as did Pat Cipollone, that President Trump didn’t want people to leave the Capitol. Now, Mr. Cipollone made that point trying to protect executive privilege, but I don’t think anybody had any doubt what he was saying.

And so, I think the Justice Department is, from what I can tell from the outside committed to following the facts and following the evidence, and they’re taking it seriously.

HUNT : Some have expressed concern that prosecuting former President Trump would turn him into a martyr and potentially add to his political strength with a base that’s follows him pretty rapidly. Do you share that concern? Do you have any concern that a prosecution would strengthen Donald Trump’s political hands?

CHENEY: I don’t think that it’s appropriate to think about it that way. Because the question for us is, are we a nation of laws? Are we a country where no one is above the law? And what do the facts and the evidence show? And certainly I’ve been very clear, I think he’s guilty of the most serious dereliction of duty of any president in our nation’s history. You’ve had a federal judge in California, say that it’s more likely than not that he and John Eastman committed two crimes.

So, you know, I think that we’re going to continue to follow the facts. I think the Department of Justice will do that. But they have to make decisions about prosecution, understanding what it means if the facts and the evidence are there, and they decide not to prosecute. How do we then call ourselves a nation of laws? I think that’s a very serious, serious balancing.

HUNT (on-camera): It sounds like you think that the evidence is there, and that if they don’t follow that evidence, that’s a dereliction of duty on their part?

CHENEY: Well, the committee it has been, I think, very thorough in laying out much of what we know, there’s much more that we have not yet shared in hearings, and that we anticipate we will share in the fall, but and we will also make decisions about criminal referrals. And ultimately, the decision about prosecution is up to the Justice Department. But I would anticipate that the committee will have an opinion on that.

Watch above via CNN.