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Trump allies sought pardons after supporting rigged election claims

A probe into the US Capitol riots has heard allies of Donald Trump sought White House pardons after supporting his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat

Jun 24, 2022, updated Jun 24, 2022
The violence at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, led to Trump's second impeachment and numerous investigations. Photo:ABC

The violence at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, led to Trump's second impeachment and numerous investigations. Photo:ABC

Witnesses say at least five congressional Republican allies of Trump sought White House pardons after supporting his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat

Their names emerged at the end of a fifth day of hearings into the Capitol riots that focused on how the then-president pressured top Justice Department officials daily in his final weeks in office to help him illegally hold onto power.

Trump sought to replace acting attorney-general Jeffrey Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department environmental lawyer and staunch supporter of Trump’s false claims his defeat was the result of widespread fraud.

That move was headed off only when most of the rest of the Justice Department leadership threatened to resign en masse if Trump carried it out.

“The president didn’t care about actually investigating the facts. He just wanted the Department of Justice to put its stamp of approval on the lies,” Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican committee member, said at Thursday’s hearing.

The committee heard from Rosen, his then-acting deputy attorney-general Richard Donoghue and former assistant attorney-general for the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel.

Video testimony from other White House aides showed Republicans Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert and Scott Perry sought pardons from Trump, which could have protected them from prosecution for any activities they may have engaged in before or during the January 6 riot.

Republican Jim Jordan, an outspoken defender of Trump, inquired at the White House about pardons but never asked for one for himself, said Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Perry has previously denied seeking a pardon, while representatives of the other five did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump never acted upon those pardon requests.

Rosen said in the days leading up to January 6, 2021, when Congress met to formally certify Joe Biden as the next president, Trump repeatedly “asserted the Department of Justice had not done enough” to investigate false allegations the election had been “stolen” through voter fraud.

“Between December 23 and January 3, the president either called or met with me virtually every day, with one or two exceptions such as Christmas Day,” Rosen testified.

Donoghue testified Trump had said to Justice Department officials: “What I’m just asking you to do is say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen”.

Ex-Justice Department officials cast Clark as incompetent and unqualified to head the department as he pushed recommendations they said would be disastrous.

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Clark also pressured Donoghue and Rosen to send a letter to politicians in Georgia falsely claiming the Justice Department had “significant concerns” about the legitimacy of Biden’s victory in the state and echoing Trump’s false claims of voting fraud. They both refused.

Donoghue said during an early January meeting Trump was warned of “hundreds and hundreds of resignations” if Clark were to take over as head of the agency.

“The leadership would be gone. Jeff Clark would be leading a graveyard,” he said.

The hearing kicked off shortly after it was disclosed federal law enforcement had raided Clark’s home.

Russ Vought, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget who recently hired Clark to work for his legal advocacy group Center for Renewing America, confirmed the raid of Clark’s home on Twitter.

Clark provided a deposition to the select committee, and the committee showed excerpts of it in which he repeatedly invoked his legal right not to answer questions.

On Twitter earlier this year, Clark called himself “one of the top targets of the politically motivated J6 committee”.

The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a plot to advance alternative slates of fake electors in battleground states with the goal of overturning the election result.

They also are seeking copies of communications between would-be electors and any federal government employees, as well as communications involving Trump allies, including lawyers Giuliani and John Eastman.

-Reuters

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