Source: Politics<\/p>\n
In the final days of his presidency, Donald Trump seriously considered issuing a blanket pardon for all participants in the Jan. 6 riot, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n
Between Jan. 6 and Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump made three calls to one adviser to discuss the idea. \u201cDo you think I should pardon them? Do you think it\u2019s a good idea? Do you think I have the power to do it?\u201d Trump told the person, who summarized their conversations.<\/p>\n
Another adviser to the former president said Trump asked questions about how participants in the riot might be charged criminally, and how a uniform pardon could provide them protection going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it everybody that had a Trump sign or everybody who walked into the Capitol\u201d who could be pardoned? Trump asked, according to that adviser. \u201cHe said, ‘Some people think I should pardon them.’ He thought if he could do it, these people would never have to testify or be deposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The people who spoke with Trump were granted anonymity to describe their discussions frankly.<\/p>\n
The previously unreported conversations show that Trump wasn\u2019t simply musing when he told supporters at a Texas rally last weekend that he would consider pardoning people prosecuted for their role in the Jan. 6 attack if he runs for president again in 2024 and wins. Even in the immediate aftermath of the riot, Trump was expressing sympathy for those involved and weighing how he could shield them from legal consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,\u201d he said at the Saturday rally outside Houston. \u201cAnd if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.\u201d The comments have triggered complaints<\/a> among members of the House Jan. 6 committee that Trump is engaging in witness tampering.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Trump declined to comment.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s consideration of preemptive pardons quickly hit a wall. It was unclear how he could pardon an entire class of people that hadn\u2019t been charged. \u201cYou didn\u2019t know who the FBI was going to arrest down the road,\u201d the first adviser said.<\/p>\n At the same time, the White House counsel\u2019s office was forcefully telling Trump what he could not do as president, this person said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a dangling threat that if he pushed too hard, [White House counsel Pat] Cipollone would leave,\u201d the adviser said. Cipollone declined to comment.<\/p>\n The second adviser said that Trump\u2019s interest in pardoning the participants was like many of the other ideas that he\u2019s floated in the past to a cadre of aides \u2014 more brainstorming and soliciting their opinion than deliberately adopting a plan. The person said that while Trump considered the blanket pardon, at the time he was more focused on challenging the election results.<\/p>\n A third adviser who spoke with Trump frequently in the final days before he left office recalled that Trump asked questions about whether he should announce his intention to run again in 2024 before Biden\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, he wanted to not just be the leader of the party, but flat-out show the world that he\u2019s running again and you\u2019re not going to stop him,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n