Jan. 6 Panel Hearings
Panel Provides New Evidence That G.O.P. Members
of Congress Sought Pardons
June 23,
2022, 8:36 p.m. ETJune 23, 2022
June 23,
2022
Maggie
Haberman, Michael S. Schmidt and Alan Feuer
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/us/politics/jan-6-pardons.html
At least
half a dozen Republican members of Congress sought pre-emptive pardons from
President Donald J. Trump as he fought to remain in office after his defeat in
the 2020 election, witnesses have told the House Jan. 6 committee, the panel
disclosed on Thursday.
Mr. Trump
“had hinted at a blanket pardon for the Jan. 6 thing for anybody,” Mr. Trump’s
former head of presidential personnel, Johnny McEntee, testified.
Representative
Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, appeared to ask for a broad pardon, not
limited to his role in Mr. Trump’s effort to reverse the outcome of the
election. Mr. Gaetz even invoked the pardoned former President Richard M. Nixon
as he did so, Eric Herschmann, a White House lawyer for Mr. Trump, testified.
“He
mentioned Nixon, and I said, ‘Nixon’s pardon was never nearly that broad,’” Mr.
Herschmann recounted.
Representative
Mo Brooks of Alabama sent an email seeking a pre-emptive pardon for all 147
members of Congress who objected to the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s
Electoral College win.
A former
adviser to Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, testified that Mr. Gaetz,
Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, Representative Scott Perry of
Pennsylvania and Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona all expressed interest in
pardons.
She also
testified that Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio “talked about” pardons but did
not directly ask for one, and that she heard of newly elected Representative
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also expressing interest to the White House
Counsel’s Office.
Taken
together, the former White House aides portrayed members of Congress concerned
about potential exposure to prosecution in the wake of their support for Mr.
Trump’s attempts to stay in power. And the accounts provided an extraordinary,
under-penalty-of-perjury portrait of efforts to use a president’s broad
clemency powers for nakedly political purposes.
In a
statement, Mr. Perry denied seeking a pardon. “I stand by my statement that I
never sought a presidential pardon for myself or other members of Congress,” he
said. “At no time did I speak with Miss Hutchinson, a White House scheduler,
nor any White House staff about a pardon for myself or any other member of
Congress — this never happened.”
Ms. Greene
posted a clip of Ms. Hutchinson on Twitter and added: “Saying ‘I heard’ means
you don’t know. Spreading gossip and lies is exactly what the January 6th Witch
Hunt Committee is all about.” Mr. Gohmert also denied making such a request,
and condemned the committee for how it has comported itself. Mr. Biggs
similarly said that Ms. Hutchinson was “mistaken,” and that her testimony was
edited “deceptively.”
Mr. Gaetz
did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Brooks
confirmed seeking a pardon, but said it was because he believed the Justice
Department would be “abused” by the Biden administration. He released the
letter he sent the White House, in which he said he was putting the request in
writing at the instruction of Mr. Trump.
The fact
that it had evidence that pardons were under discussion was previewed by the
committee at an earlier hearing. And the panel previously revealed that a key
figure in Mr. Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the election, the
conservative lawyer John Eastman, had emailed another Trump lawyer, Rudolph W.
Giuliani, after the Capitol riot, asking to be “on the pardon list, if that is
still in the works.”
Mr. Eastman
appeared before the committee and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination repeatedly.
It is
unclear whether Mr. Gaetz’s reported request for a blanket pardon was driven by
concerns about his attempts to overturn the election or other potential
criminality. At the time Mr. Gaetz made the request, he had just come under
Justice Department investigation for sex-trafficking a minor. He has not been
charged.
The
question of who was getting pardons, and for what, was a source of enormous
consternation in the final days of the Trump White House. The House select
committee is using the information about the pardons to describe a broader
effort to protect people who carried out Mr. Trump’s desires.
In his
final weeks, Mr. Trump randomly offered pardons to former aides who were jarred
because they were not sure what he thought they had done that was criminal, two
former officials have said.
Making a
case against Trump. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack appears
to be laying out evidence that could
allow prosecutors to indict former President Donald J. Trump, though the path
to a criminal trial is uncertain. Here are the main themes that have emerged so
far:
An
unsettling narrative. During the first hearing, the committee described in
vivid detail what it characterized as an attempted coup orchestrated by the
former president that culminated in the assault on the Capitol. At the heart of
the gripping story were three main players: Mr. Trump, the Proud Boys and a
Capitol Police officer.
Creating
election lies. In its second hearing, the panel showed how Mr. Trump ignored
aides and advisers as he declaredg victory prematurely and relentlessly pressed
claims of fraud he was told were wrong. “He’s become detached from reality if
he really believes this stuff,” William P. Barr, the former attorney general,
said of Mr. Trump during a videotaped interview.
Pressuring
Pence. Mr. Trump continued pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to go along
with a plan to overturn his loss even after he was told it was illegal,
according to testimony laid out by the panel during the third hearing. The
committee showed how Mr. Trump’s actions led his supporters to storm the
Capitol, sending Mr. Pence fleeing for his life.
Fake
elector plan. The committee used its fourth hearing to detail how Mr. Trump was
personally involved in a scheme to put forward fake electors. The panel also
presented fresh details on how the former president leaned on state officials
to invalidate his defeat, opening them up to violent threats when they refused.
Strong
arming the Justice Department. During the fifth hearing, the panel explored Mr.
Trump’s wide-ranging and relentless scheme to misuse the Justice Department to
keep himself in power. The panel also presented evidence that at least half a
dozen Republican members of Congress sought pre-emptive pardons.
Among the
concerns that Mr. Brooks cited was that he and other Republicans would be
targeted by an incoming Justice Department, as he asked for pardons for the
objectors to the certification, as well as supporters of a lawsuit Mr. Gohmert
filed to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reject Mr. Biden’s win on Jan.
6.
The White
House Counsel’s Office and Mr. Herschmann argued strenuously against the
pardons for members of Congress, and Mr. Trump did not grant them.
With only
hours left in office, Mr. Trump issued a pardon to Stephen K. Bannon, his
former White House adviser, wiping out federal charges that accused Mr. Bannon
of defrauding political donors who supported building a border wall that Mr.
Trump had pushed for.
In the
weeks that preceded the pardon, Mr. Bannon had taken an active role in trying
to keep Mr. Trump in office by promoting his claims of fraud. He also helped to
devise a plan — later known as the Green Bay Sweep — to persuade members of
Congress to block the normal counting of Electoral College votes by repeatedly
challenging the results in various swing states.
Mr. Trump
also gave pardons to his allies who were targets of the investigation into
whether his campaign conspired with Russian officials in 2016. Some of them
were supporters who also backed and amplified his efforts to stay in power.
One was
Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, who had pleaded guilty
to charges of lying to the F.B.I. about his dealings with a Russian diplomat.
The case was later dropped over concerns about procedural issues.
Over the
weeks after his pardon around Thanksgiving in 2020, Mr. Flynn appeared at
so-called Stop the Steal rallies, speaking in support of Mr. Trump’s baseless
claims that the election had been stolen. Working with others like the business
executive Patrick Byrne and the pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, Mr. Flynn also
promoted an effort to persuade Mr. Trump to use his national security apparatus
to seize voting machines across the country in a bid to eventually rerun
portions of the election.
In late
December 2020, Mr. Trump granted a pardon to Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime
ally and informal adviser, who had been investigated in connection with the
Russia inquiry and maintained his innocence. That move came five months after
Mr. Trump commuted Mr. Stone’s 40-month sentence stemming from his conviction
on charges of obstructing a congressional investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2016
campaign and possible ties to Russia.
Much like
Mr. Flynn, Mr. Stone used social media and speaking engagements at Stop the
Steal rallies to amplify and bolster Mr. Trump’s false claims about the
election. Mr. Stone has adamantly denied that he had any personal role in
fomenting the violence that day.
Luke
Broadwater contributed reporting.
Maggie
Haberman is a White House correspondent. She joined The Times in 2015 as a
campaign correspondent and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018
for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia.
@maggieNYT
Michael S.
Schmidt is a Washington correspondent covering national security and federal
investigations. He was part of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 — one
for reporting on workplace sexual harassment and the other for coverage of
President Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia. @NYTMike
Alan Feuer
covers extremism and political violence. He joined The Times in 1999. @alanfeuer
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