Representatives Mo Brooks, Matt Goetz, Andy Biggs, Louis Homer and Scott Perry were among Republican members of Congress who asked then-President Donald Trump to isolate them from future prosecutions by giving them a presidential pardon in the days immediately following the attack on the US Capitol. on January 6 last year.
Their names were revealed at a House of Representatives hearing on Thursday (January 6th) that examined Mr Trump’s efforts to put pressure on the Justice Department to help him cancel his loss of his election by Joe Biden in 2020. г.
The select committee released videos of testimonies from former Trump White House officials describing Republican members’ efforts to obtain clemency after Mr Trump’s scheme led to an attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special aide to the president, said Mr Goetz and Mr Brooks had called for a “joint pardon” for members attending the December meeting to plan for January 6th.
“Mr Gaetz has personally called for pardon and has been doing so since early December,” she said in pre-recorded testimony played by the commission.
Ms. Hutchinson also said Congressman Jim Jordan had spoken out about pardons in Congress, but did not specifically ask for one. She told Marjorie Taylor Green: “I heard she asked for a pardon from the White House office.
Former White House deputy Eric Hershman confirmed to the commission that Mr Gaetz had asked for clemency, adding: “The general tone was ‘we can be tried because we defended … the president’s position on these things.’ ”
Mr. Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, requested the pardon in an email dated January 11, 2021, to Mr. Trump’s assistant Molly Michael, who he writes was sent on his behalf, and Mr. Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, who is alleged to be under investigation for sexual trafficking.
“It is clear that with deep pockets and fierce Social Democrats (with some liberal help from Republicans) they will abuse America’s judiciary by targeting numerous Republicans with fictitious accusations stemming from our recent struggle for fair and accurate elections and speeches related to this, “he wrote.
Mr Brooks added that he recommended that Mr Trump issue a “universal (universal) pardon” to all members of the Republican Party of the House of Representatives and the Senate who voted against the certification of the 2020 election, as well as to those who signed the law briefly appealed to the Supreme Court to cast the votes in the election from the swing states won by Mr. Biden.
Letter from Mo Brooks requesting pardon
(government document)
Wyoming Deputy Chairman Liz Cheney had previously claimed that other people in Mr Trump’s orbit had sought pardon since the Jan. 6 attack, including “many” members of Congress, during the first public hearing. of the commission earlier this month.
Although the identities of most GOP members remain unknown, Ms. Cheney had previously revealed that pardons had been requested from Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry and John Eastman, a former law professor at Chapman University who was pressuring then-Vice President Mike. Pence to cast electoral votes from swing states won by Mr. Biden at the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, which was to certify Mr. Biden’s victory.
In an email from Mr. Eastman to Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, sent just days after the attack, the conservative lawyer wrote, “I decided I should be on the pardon list if it’s still in the works.”
Nick Ackerman, a veteran attorney who served as an assistant to the U.S. Attorney in New York and as a deputy special prosecutor during Watergate, told The Independent that the pardon application is a strong indicator that the person who wants it knows that he had broken the law.
“This is clear evidence of someone who believes he has committed a crime and is concerned about not being persecuted – an innocent person does not want pardon,” he said. “A request for clemency, when not even under investigation, is indisputable proof of guilt.”
Illinois spokesman Adam Kinzinger, who led the presentation on Thursday, declined to say what crimes his Republican counterparts may have sought pardon for.
“I will not go deeper than what we have presented, but look – all I know is that if you are innocent, you will probably not go out and seek pardon,” he said.
Mr Perry, who denied seeking pardon, was prominent in the committee’s presentation on Thursday, during which former Trump-era Justice Department officials gave evidence of the role of Pennsylvania Republicans in a proposal submitted to Mr Mr. Trump by Jeffrey Clark, an environmental lawyer who was then head of the department’s civilian department.
The Pennsylvania Republican had, in fact, introduced Mr. Trump to Mr. Clark, who encouraged the president to fire then-Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and put him in charge of the Justice Department so he could pressure U.S. lawmakers to overturn election results. in their states based on allegations. of fraud, which the department has already uncovered.
After Mr Clark told Mr Rosen that he had been promoted to Mr Rosen’s current job, Mr Rosen and other senior Justice officials confronted him and Mr Trump in a contentious meeting in The oval cabinet.
One of the former officials who attended the meeting, former Deputy Attorney General Richard Donohue, described how he and other justice officials told Trump they would resign if he made Mr Clark an inexperienced environmental law specialist process. lawyer or prosecutor – their boss.
“I said: Mr President, I would resign immediately. I don’t work a minute for this person [Mr Clark] which I have just declared completely incompetent. “
He said Mr Trump then turned to Stephen Engel, then head of the Justice Department’s legal advisers’ office, and asked if he would resign. In response, he said that Mr Engel had told the President: “I would absolutely, Mr President, leave me no choice.”
Mr Donohue said he had then told the president he would “lose [his] the entire leadership of the department ”if he carried out Mr Clark’s plan.
“Every single agent will leave you, your entire administration of justice will leave in hours,” he recalled.
The committee selected also provided evidence that Mr Trump’s advisers at the White House found that Mr Clark’s proposed actions, including launching investigations into baseless conspiracy theories imposed by Mr Trump and his allies, and sending of a letter to the state legislature calling on them to cancel the election would be illegal.
Mr Hershman, a former deputy White House adviser, told select committee investigators Clark’s plan was “crazy” and said his reaction was to tell the ambitious acting chief prosecutor that he could prosecute him. charges.
“I said … a fucking hole … congratulations: You have just admitted that your first step as prosecutor general would be to commit a crime and violate rule 6-c. You are obviously the right candidate for the job, ”he recalls.
Mr. Clark, a veteran environmental lawyer who now works for a pro-Trump think tank called the Center for Renewal of America, was one of many former employees of the Trump administration who were called to testify before the elected committee. He initially resisted appearing, but when he appeared under threat of criminal referral for contempt of Congress, he invoked his right to the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination more than 100 times.
The hearing, which focused on his behavior in the days leading up to the Capitol attack, comes when the department where he once served as a senior official is now investigating his role in Mr Trump’s plot to stay in power against the will of voters.
According to numerous reports, FBI agents broke into Mr. Clark’s home on Wednesday under a search warrant.
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