Multiple Republican members of the House of Representatives sought preemptive pardons from Trump on the heels of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, among them Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks and Marjorie Taylor Greene, witnesses testified.
Alabama Rep. Brooks sent the White House an email on Jan. 11, 2021, seeking pardons for himself, Gaetz, and “every Congressman and Senator who voted to reject the electoral college submission of Arizona and Pennsylvania” five days earlier, according to excerpts of the message displayed during the hearing.
Florida Rep. Gaetz had pushed to receive a pardon beginning in December 2020, according to videotaped testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
“The pardon he was requesting was as broad as you could describe, from the beginning of time, up until today, for any and all things” former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann said in his own videotaped testimony about Gaetz.
Others who sought pardons were Trump allies such as Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Andy Biggs of Arizona as well as Greene, the controversial Georgia congresswoman, according to testimony.
All of them had promoted and supported Trump’s false claims of having lost the 2020 presidential election only as a result of widespread ballot fraud.
After testimony about the pardons was heard, committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said, “The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime.”
– Dan Mangan
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