- A congressional committee has learned that Trump intended to announce his intention to pardon the rioters.
- Several Trump advisers expressed fear that the 25th amendment, which would remove the president
- Trump did deliver a speech in which pardons were not mentioned.
A congressional committee has learned that on the day following the incident on January 6, 2017, Donald Trump intended to announce his intention to pardon the rioters.
Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, told a congressional committee formed to examine the attack that the president intended to pardon the rioters in a speech the next day.
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After releasing a video on January 6 encouraging his supporters to vacate the Capitol, “He wanted to put it in that he wanted to potentially pardon them,” said Hutchinson, who added that Trump was reluctant to say more than he already had.
“He didn’t think they did anything wrong . . . the person who did something wrong that day was Mike Pence by not standing with him.”
In a meeting that included Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, several Trump advisers expressed fear that the past president did not sufficiently condemn the violence and that the 25th amendment, which would remove the president and replace him with the vice president, could be used.
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Trump did deliver a speech in which pardons for rioters were not mentioned.
Hutchinson stated that both Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani and Meadows showed interest in presidential pardons relating to the January 6 events.
