Republican lawmakers sought pre-emptive pardons from Trump over Jan. 6 attack

Republican members of Congress including Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert and Scott Perry contacted the White House to ask for pre-emptive pardons from then-President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to testimony at a congressional hearing on Thursday.

Brooks advocated for pardons from several lawmakers involved in a December 2020 meeting with the former president and his allies to undermine the validity of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden. "Mr. Gaetz was personally pushing for a pardon," Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, told the House of Representatives select committee hearing on the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol.