US Capitol probe renews focus on Trump rebels

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Death threats, allegations of treason, and criticism from their local parties: the previous 17 months have been a hard lesson in the hazards of defying an unforgiving leader for the six Republicans standing for re-election after voting to impeach Donald Trump.

Read more: Trump calls Capitol insurrection "hoax" a week before public hearings

Ten of the 211 House Republicans supported the Democrats' ultimately unsuccessful quest last year to convict Trump in a Senate trial, thinking he should be held accountable for instigating a fatal siege of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Four have subsequently declared their retirement, while the remaining six have become outcasts at their hometown town halls and roadside diners, chastised for their "disloyalty" as they campaign for the midterm elections in November.

As televised congressional hearings on the insurgency begin Thursday, the group is prepared for a high-profile reminder of their rupture with Trump from a party still in thrall to the previous President.

Liz Cheney sits on the House committee investigating the January 6 riots. The congresswoman has been defamed by Trump after voting in favor of his second impeachment over the Capitol events.

She called his participation in the insurgency the "greatest betrayal" by a US president in history and has been chastised by Republicans in Washington and Wyoming.

She has been a frequent target of Trump's barbs. He labeled her "America last", "the face of the Washington swamp," and a globalist who enjoys "endless, nonsensical, bloody wars" as late as May.

Following his vote to impeach Trump, freshman congressman and war veteran Peter Meijer told MSNBC that he was changing his routine and "working to get body armor, which is a reimbursable purchase."

After saying Trump "betrayed millions with claims of a stolen election," his office received death threats.

Read more: 'Oath Keepers' member pleads guilty to Jan 6-linked charges

According to Meijer, "someone may try to kill us."

In the weeks after his impeachment vote, two county-level Republican organizations in Meijer's district decided to formally condemn him, while Michigan's state party chairman, Ron Weiser, joked about "assassination" as a possible way to deal with Meijer.

He's likely to win his August primary against a Trump-backed opponent, but a member of his own family may not vote for him.

In a December interview with The Atlantic, Meijer claimed that his once-supportive sister Haley, a Trump fan, had turned against him and backed another early challenger in his primary.

Tom Rice and Dan Newhouse have been censured by their respective state parties, but have refused to retire and now face Trump-backed primary opponents.

A few weeks after his impeachment, Rice received a threatening message from a constituent inviting him to "come over to his house for coffee so that he could beat the living hell out of him," according to a police report published by NBC.

But it hasn't stopped Trump from labeling Rice a "coward who abandoned his constituents," a "disaster", and a "total fool... laughed at in Washington" in some of his harshest tweets.

Because of his impeachment vote, another of the six dissenters, David Valadao, faced his own primary opponent in California's Central Valley on Tuesday.

However, he is the only member of the group who has not had Trump weigh in on his campaign, and he appeared to be on track to progress to the general election, despite the fact that there are still many votes to be counted.

Nonetheless, a piece in his hometown daily, The Daily Republic, depicted Valadao as a pariah in sections of his district, stating that "bad blood after Valadao's vote runs deep" in Hanford, where he was born and bred.

Jaime Herrera Beutler became embroiled in the impeachment issue when she verified details of a phone contact between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump during the insurgency, during which the President chastised McCarthy for not being as "upset" about the election results as the rioters.

The Washington State Republican Party condemned her impeachment vote, and demonstrators picketed her office.

While some Republicans have been concerned about constituent threats, Herrera Beutler received an ominous warning from one of her own colleagues, far-right Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

"First voting to impeach innocent President Trump, then yapping to the press and throwing @GOPLeader (McCarthy) under the bus," Greene tweeted from her now suspended account. 

"The Trump loyal 75 million are watching."