Former aides to then-President Donald Trump testified in interviews with the bipartisan House select committee investigating the events culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters that several Republican members of Congress sought presidential pardons, it was revealed Thursday during a public committee hearing. The committee aired recordings of witness questioning in which it was stated that the likes of Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida asked for pardons by Trump.
Mo Brooks of Alabama previewed a possible line of defense for the alleged pardon seekers in a Jan. 11, 2021, email to a Trump White House official arguing that a pardon was necessary not because of crimes committed but because of the prospect of retribution by “vitriolic Socialist Democrats.” Brooks’s message suggested pardons might be extended to all Republicans who signed on to a longshot Texas lawsuit asking that election results be overturned in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. See: Republican Katie Britt beats Mo Brooks in Alabama Senate primary runoff The existence of pardon requests had been speculated upon, and referenced in earlier hearings, to the degree that it was something of a parlor game on social media to predict whose names would become associated with requested pardons in the final days of the Trump presidency. It remained uncertain after Thursday’s hearings which members had actively sought pardons and how wide-ranging their requests were. Initially, more than one of the six or seven members named denied having asked to be pardoned by the outgoing president.
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