The GOP legislators – Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert and Scott Perry – have rejected misbehavior.
WASHINGTON – At least 5 House Republicans lookedfor pardons from President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, White House authorities informed the House Jan. 6 committee in a video revealed Thursday.
The GOP legislators – Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania – have rejected misdeed and implicated the committee of playing politics.
Members of Trump’s personnel determined “members of Congress who gottenintouchwith the White House after Jan. 6 to lookfor governmental pardons for their carryout,” stated Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., one of 2 Republicans on the unique House panel examining the attack.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., the committee’s other Republican, stated: “The just factor I understand to ask for a pardon is since you believe you haveactually dedicated a criminalactivity.”
Cassidy Hutchinson, previous assistant to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, stated Brook, Gaetz, Biggs, Gohmert and Perry all asked for pardons.
She singled out Gaetz, stating he “was personally pressing for a pardon, and he was doing so giventhat early December. I’m not sure why.”
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Eric Herschmann, who worked as a legalrepresentative in the White House, stated Gaetz asked for a really broad pardon.
“The basic tone was, ‘We might get prosecuted since we were defensive of the president’s positions on these things,'” Herschmann stated of Gaetz’s demand.
John McEntee, who ran the White House’s workers workplace, stated he likewise understood about Gaetz’s demand. “He told me he asked Meadows for a pardon,” he stated.
McEntee likewise informed the committee that Trump “had hinted at a blanket pardon” for a number of associates included in the “January thing.”
The implicated pardon-seekers are all members of the House Freedom Caucus, which was assoonas led by Meadows when he a member of the House of Representatives.
Members haveactually slammed the committee’s allegations.
Gaetz did not address the pardon concern straight, however stated in a tweet that “the January 6 Committee is an unconstitutional political sideshow.”
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Brooks, who this week lost a main overflow for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, defended his pardon demand. Brooks informed CNN there was “a issue Democrats would abuse the judicial system by prosecuting and imprisoning Republicans.”
The workplaces of Biggs and Gohmert did not rightaway return USA TODAY’s questions.
Hutchinson stated another Republican congressman – Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio – asked for an upgrade on governmental pardons, however didn’t ask for one straight. She also stated Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., did not ask her for a pardon, however she heard from another staffer that the Georgia firebrand had asked for one.
Greene reacted with a tweet: “Saying ‘I heard’ means you puton’t understand. Spreading chatter and lies is precisely what the January 6th Witch Hunt Committee is all about.”
Brook