At least 6 GOP members of Congress asked the Trump White House for a January 6 pardon, including Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene

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At least 6 GOP members of Congress asked the Trump White House for a January 6 pardon, including Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene
Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, and Committee Chair Bennie Thomson take their seats during the panel's fifth hearing on Thursday.Win McNamee/Getty Images
  • Former White House staff identified six GOP lawmakers who sought January 6-related pardons.
  • Rep. Liz Cheney previously said Republican Rep. Scott Perry was one pardon seeker.
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At least six Republican members of Congress have been publicly identified as pressing the White House under President Donald Trump to give them pardons in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, former Trump aides said in testimony to the House panel investigating the deadly insurrection.

GOP Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania asked Trump to pardon them for helping him try to overturn the 2020 election, the former White House aides said in a series of taped statements presented Thursday on Capitol Hill.

The Trump White House aides John McEntee, Cassidy Hutchinson, and Eric Herschmann mapped out how the GOP House lawmakers — most of whom have been subpoenaed by the select committee — asked for legal cover from prosecution in a montage of clips the House select committee investigating the riot played during its fifth public hearing.

The list of identified members may grow. Committee staff posted an image of an email Brooks sent administration officials, the subject being "Pardons."

At least 6 GOP members of Congress asked the Trump White House for a January 6 pardon, including Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene
January 6 select committee staff displayed an image of a email Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama allegedly sent the White House requesting presidential pardons for MAGA lawmakers during the panel's fifth public hearing on Thursday, June 23.Warren Rojas/Insider

In it, Brooks says he's writing on behalf of Gaetz and urges Trump to "give general (all purpose) pardons to the following groups of people: Every Congressman and Senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania."

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The former Trump White House aides who sat for depositions with the House investigators mentioned Biggs, Brooks, Gaetz, Gohmert, Perry, and Greene as lawmakers who expressed interest in pardons. Hutchinson, who worked for the then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, also said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio had discussed pardons but never asked for one.

Gaetz did not deny he asked for a pardon, writing on Twitter only that the select committee was "an unconstitutional political sideshow." Greene tweeted something similar about the committee "spreading gossip and lies," but did not explicitly deny the allegation.

The House GOP lawmakers named as pardon seekers came near the end of Thursday's hearing after Rep. Liz Cheney, the select committee's cochair, teased the disclosure at the session's start.

"At the close of today's hearing, we will see video testimony of three members of Donald Trump's White House staff. They will identify certain members of Congress who contacted the White House after January 6 seeking presidential pardons," the Wyoming Republican said Thursday during her opening remarks.

Cheney had named Perry during the panel's first hearing as she said investigators had uncovered evidence of sitting members of Congress lobbying the embattled president to clear them of any wrongdoing before leaving office.

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Perry, who has been subpoenaed by the committee regarding his interaction with the former Justice Department official Jeff Clark, denied the accusation.

"The notion that I ever sought a Presidential pardon for myself or other Members of Congress is an absolute, shameless, and soulless lie," Perry wrote on social media.

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