Excerpts from an email from US Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL) to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows requesting pardons for members of Congress are shown on screen during a public hearing. Fifth Testimony of the United States House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, United States, on June 23, 2022.
Jim Bourg | Reuters
There were half a dozen Republican lawmakers who strongly supported the then President Donald TrumpAccording to testimony and evidence presented Thursday at the House Select Committee investigating the hack, his false claims of vote rigging in the 2020 election sought pardon from after the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.
Trump also talked about issuing a so-called amnesty to members of his family and White House staff before leaving office in January 2021, according to former White House aide John McEntee’s taped testimony. .
“The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime,” said Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of two Republicans on the panel investigating the Capitol riots. said at the end of the hearing. .
Five GOP members requested Trump’s pardon through the office of White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to taped testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Meadows aide.
She identified them as Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Hutchinson also testified that she heard that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia had requested a pardon from the White House counsel’s office.
In an email to the White House on January 11, 2021 at Thursday’s hearing, Brooks requested not only pardons for himself and Gaetz, but also for “every Congressman and Senator who voted from rejected submissions by the Arizona and Pennsylvania Electoral Colleges “5 days earlier, on January 6.
On January 6, a special joint session of the National Assembly was convened to confirm the victory of the President’s Electoral College. Joe Biden was suspended for hours after a violent mob of Trump supporters entered the Capitol and flooded the halls of Congress.
Gaetz began applying for a pardon in December 2020, according to Hutchinson, who added, “I’m not sure why.”
A video showing a discussion of the President’s pardon during the Thursday hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol at the House of Representatives Cannon Institute on June 23, 2022 in Washington, DC.
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Former White House attorney Eric Herschmann, in his own videotaped testimony, said of Gaetz’s request, “The general tone is ‘we can be prosecuted because we defend the president’s position on those things. this.” “
“The pardon he requested was as broad as you can describe, from the beginning of time, down to the present day, to any and everything,” Herschmann said.
Gaetz, who is still under criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice in an investigation involving possible sex trafficking of an underage girl, prompted the commission on January 6 in a following tweet. hearing.
But his office did not respond to NBC News when asked if he would seek forgiveness from Trump.
“The January 6 committee is an unconstitutional political protest,” Gaetz tweeted. “It is rapidly losing the interest of the American people and now has to resort to forcing federal law enforcement against political opponents.
Greene’s office also did not explicitly deny whether she was seeking pardon, but referred NBC to a tweet she posted after Hutchinson’s testimony was released.
“Saying ‘I’ve heard’ means you don’t know,” Greene wrote. “Spreading rumors and lies is exactly what the January 6 Witch Hunt Commission is all about.”
A video of U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL) is shown on a screen during Thursday’s hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol in The Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on June 23. , in 2022.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | beautiful pictures
McEntee was asked in his videotape testimony whether Trump would consider issuing a pardon to anyone involved in the Jan.
“I’ve heard of that,” McEntee said.
Asked if he was aware of Trump’s conversations about the possibility of pardoning family members. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are senior White House advisers.
McEntee replied: “I know he’s hinted at a January 6 pardon for anyone, but I think he’s gone for all the employees and everyone involved. “Not with January 6, but right before he left office, I know he talked about it,” McEntee said.
