Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) sent the Trump White House an email requesting pardons for a whole lot of Republican lawmakers who attempted to overthrow the 2020 election, saying he did so on the behest of then-President Donald Trump, based on CBS reporter Robert Costa, who tweeted Thursday that Brooks had shared the e-mail with him.
The e-mail, dated Jan. 11, 2021, and addressed to Trump’s White House executive assistant Molly Michael, seeks preemptive pardons for 147 members of Congress who voted against the certification of the Electoral College ends in Arizona and Pennsylvania, states Joe Biden won.
The e-mail also requests pardons for all 126 Republicans who, in December 2020, signed an amicus temporary for a Texas lawsuit that sought to challenge the election ends in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia — states Biden also won.
“Dear Mollie: President Trump told me to send you this letter,” the e-mail begins, adding that it’s also “pursuant to a request” from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
“It is evident that deep-pocketed and vitriolic Socialist Democrats … are going to abuse America’s judicial system by targeting quite a few Republicans with sham charges deriving from our recent fight for honest and accurate elections and speeches related thereto,” the e-mail reads. It then requests “general (all purpose) pardons” for the lawmakers.
Ultimately, Trump didn’t issue a blanket preemptive pardon to senators and representatives who formally embraced his false claims of a rigged or stolen election.
Costa reports that Brooks texted that “fortunately,” nobody yet has been “persecuted for performing their lawful duties, which suggests a pardon was unnecessary.”
“… Fortunately, with time passage, more rational forces took over and nobody was persecuted for performing their lawful duties, which suggests a pardon was unnecessary in spite of everything.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) June 23, 2022
Brooks said in a statement shared on Twitter in March that Trump “asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back within the White House.”
Last week, Brooks lost the first in his state after Trump withdrew his endorsement of the lawmaker and backed a rival Republican.
The Alabama congressman now appears willing to cooperate with the House select committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Brooks said this week that he would testify in regards to the events surrounding the rebel.
During a public hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, the House panel shared witness testimony that besides Brooks and Gaetz, Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.) and Louie Gohmert (Texas) had also asked for pardons.
The committee previously said that Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) had sought a presidential pardon, which the congressman denied.
“The one reason I do know to ask for a pardon is because you think that you’ve committed against the law,” committee member Adam Kinzinger (R-Ailing.) said on the hearing.
