Washington – Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the Republican members of the House select committee examining the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, said Sunday that the panel will reveal evidence at upcoming hearings that Republican members of Congress asked for pardons from the former president. Donald Trump in his last weeks in office.
“We will not make accusations or say things without evidence or proof,” Kinzinger of Illinois said in an interview with Face the Nation when asked about the revelation last week that GOP lawmakers ask for presidential pardons.
Last Thursday, the House Select Committee held the first of at least six public hearings scheduled for June, marking a new phase in the court’s investigation into the events leading up to January 6, 2021. During last week’s events, the committee Vice President Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, revealed that “multiple” GOP congressmen have called for presidential pardons for their role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Cheney named Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry as one of the Republicans who apologized to Trump, though he denied doing so and called the notion “an absolute, shameless, soulless lie.”
Investigators believe Perry was involved in efforts to install Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who was a key figure in questioning the integrity of the election with Trump, as attorney general. in office in the weeks following the November 2020 election. Last month, the committee issued a subpoena to Perry and four other Republican lawmakers to testify, though all have refused to comply.
Kinzinger, like Cheney last week, declined to disclose how many Republicans asked for pardons, but said the committee will post more information about those efforts during this week’s hearings.
“Why would you ask for a pardon? Let’s say, in general, that if someone asks for a pardon it would be because they have a real concern that they may have done something illegal,” he said.
In addition to the details of the pardons, Kinzinger said Wednesday’s hearing will also look at efforts to overturn the Department of Justice’s election results.
“You see a president spreading misinformation, trying to install his own people in the Department of Justice to carry out his orders. Justice, which is supposed to be representative of all of us, pressures the vice president and finally when not “It can be achieved with its own, it is trying to pressure Congress not only with public pressure, but with a public attack,” he said.
Kinzinger warned that if Trump is re-elected, he has “no doubt” that the former president will install people loyal to him in his cabinet and in the White House.
“I think it’s important for us as a country to recognize that, to recognize the importance of the oath in the United States,” he said. “We could pass any law in this country, but if we have people in power, whether in politics, law enforcement or the military, if we have people who are not willing to put their oath above any loyalty to a person, there is no law.
In addition to revealing that some Republican lawmakers have apologized to Trump, the select committee of the House testified at senior Trump administration officials during Thursday’s hearing, including Attorney General Bill Barr and the White House chief adviser and daughter Ivanka Trump, who said they did not believe. The 2020 election was fraught with fraud.
Kinzinger said the committee has learned that many people around Trump told him there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and the panel will detail more in the future about how those close to the former president did not believe the election they were stolen, but they perpetuated the lie. keep Trump in power.
“The president tried to overthrow the will of the people, and he tried at first with misinformation, through the Department of Justice, pressuring the vice president, and then on January 6,” he said. “People have repeatedly told him that he trusted, that he respected the people around him, that the elections were not stolen, that there was no evidence to corroborate any theft or any kind of corruption that would change the outcome. I think It’s pretty obvious I knew it, but I didn’t want to lose it. “
Assault on the United States Capitol
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