Liz Cheney Exits Congress 6 Years Later and Millions of Dollars Richer

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) will vacate her congressional seat on Tuesday after becoming a wealthy woman during her six years of serving Wyoming.

Cheney, who lost her Republican primary by nearly 40 points in August, will depart Congress on January 3 and return home as a defeated 56-year-old never Trumper.

Cheney will not depart Congress empty-handed. During her six years in Congress, she has become very wealthy. Breitbart News reported in August that Cheney’s net worth ballooned from an estimated $7 million when she first took office in 2017 to possibly more than $44 million in 2020. Depending on the specifics of her latest financial disclosure form, Cheney’s net worth could have skyrocketed up to 600 percent in Congress.

According to her 2020 Personal Financial Disclosure form, Cheney declared a net worth between $10,422,023 and $44,140,000, stemming from assets valued between $10,432,024 and $44,155,000. She reported no earned income, gifts, or transactions. She did, however, declare she held three posts, including a trustee position at the University of Wyoming, membership of a holding company, and what appears to be a position in her family’s trust.

Cheney’s wealth and social status are enhanced by her husband, Philip Perry, who is a partner at Latham & Watkins law firm in Washington, DC, which has advised Chinese companies. Since 2017, the year Cheney joined Congress, Perry has maintained “equity ownership” in the firm worth between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000. Breitbart News reported:

Perry’s firm has advised a Chinese Communist Party-linked technology company named TME and Exelon Corporation. The State Department in 2019 dubbed TME a tool of the Chinese government. According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2011, Exelon Corporation agreed to provide consulting and training services to an arm of the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). The state-owned CNNC’s president and vice president are appointed by the highest administrative position in the Government of China, the Premier of the People’s Republic of China. The CNNC supervises all facets of China’s nuclear programs.

While Perry’s law firm has serviced Chinese clients, Cheney sat on the Armed Services Committee with many powerful subcommittees dedicated to national security. Cheney worked with House Republicans’ on producing a 2020 report on Communist China entitled the “China Task Force Report.” The report states, “[T]he greatest generational challenge we face today is the threat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”

Cheney’s forced exit from Congress does not mean she or her family will depart Washington, DC, and return home to Wyoming. Technically, She represented her home state of Wyoming for six years. But her lack of appearance in the state during the GOP primary become a point of contention for many Cowboy State voters. Instead of campaigning in Wyoming, Cheney appeared to prefer dwelling in the D.C. area, soaking up the spotlight on the January 6 Committee.

Born in Wisconsin, Cheney moved to Wyoming with her family as a young woman. They divided their time between Wyoming and Washington, DC, to suit former Vice President Dick Cheney’s political aspirations. In 1996, Liz Cheney graduated from the University of Chicago’s law school. She then worked in the Bush administration while her father was vice president. In 2014, she ran for the Wyoming State Senate and lost. A few years later, she won Wyoming’s U.S. House of Representatives seat.

Cheney’s congressional career entailed some successes. In 2019, she was elected the third most powerful House Republican as GOP House Conference chair. She was later displaced by Trump-endorsed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) by a vote of no confidence in 2021, the same year she accepted a position on the January 6 Committee.

Cheney’s participation on the committee appeared to seal her political fate in Wyoming. Viewed as a partisan witch hunt, the committee failed to sway 89 percent of the public. Moreover, the committee’s final report did not produce any legally binding results. Adding insult to injury, the committee officially withdrew its subpoena on Wednesday for former President Donald Trump to testify before Congress.

As a new political cycle begins Tuesday, Cheney has not definitively stated what her future plans entail. She has said her forward focus is blocking Trump from winning reelection in 2024. But it is unclear how she will do so without the vice chair pulpit or the January 6 Committee. She has floated the idea of potentially running for president in 2024, but critics doubt she will gain enough Democrat votes or Republican support in either primary.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.