Rep. Pete Aguilar, a leading Democrat who served on a congressional committee investigating President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, expects no favors from the outgoing commander in chief.
He said he thought President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon, which shields him from potential retaliation by Trump, was unnecessary because the committee had “done nothing wrong” since Jan. 6.
“I don’t think a pardon is necessary. I stand by the work we’ve done,” Aguilar told reporters Tuesday at the Capitol.
The California Democrat also said he “didn’t ask for a pardon,” nor did he talk to anyone in the The white house about one. Fox News Digital reached out to Aguilar to ask if he would accept one, if approved, but he did not respond.
Lawmakers who were on the committee of the House of Representatives that investigated on January 6 were divided about the importance of a preventive pardon. Some fear it will set a bad precedent for future presidents and argue that the Constitution’s Speech and Debate Clause provides adequate protection from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits related to their legislative work. Others welcomed the idea of a pardon, fearing Trump’s “retaliation.”
MICHAEL COHEN BEGGING FOR BIDEN’S PRESIDENTIAL PARDON: ‘I’M SOMEONE’S SON TOO’
U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, left, and Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges listen as the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 13, 2022.
Tail. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the former chairman of the Jan. 6 committee investigating Trump, said he spoke with the White House last month about the potential of pardoning lawmakers who served on the committee, and said he would accept a pardon from Biden if he is approved.
“I believe Donald Trump when he says he’s going to get revenge for this,” Thompson said this week. “I believe it when he says my name and Liz Cheney and the others. I trust him.”
Aside from Thompson, no other committee members have indicated they would accept the pardons offered by Biden. However, they did not say whether they would reject one.
“I haven’t been in contact with the White House. I haven’t asked,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who served on the committee, said Tuesday.
“It would be the wrong precedent. I don’t want to see every future president grant a broad category of pardons,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who also served on the committee. , he said in an interview with CNN earlier this month. Former Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger made the same argument as Schiff, but took it a step further, saying he didn’t want one.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said during a live event hosted by Politico this week that he’s not sure what the right call is for Biden.
“Different people have different feelings about the whole pardon thing because there are these outrageous threats that are made against people just for doing their jobs, like the prosecutors on Jan. 6 at the Department of Justice,” Raskin said. He added that “in a just world” there would be no need for a pardon because the commission had done nothing wrong.
I’m glad we have a wise president with wise people around him who will be able to figure it out, Raskin said.
BIDEN’S HHS SECRETARY WARNS OF IMPLICATIONS OF PREVENTIVE PARDON FOR FACIA AND OTHERS
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Med., left, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chaired the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, confer on the House floor as lawmakers gather for the joint session of Congress to confirm the votes of the Electoral College in the presidential elections, in Washington, Monday, January 6, 2025.
During Biden’s final interview as president with a print publication last week, he indicated that preemptive pardons are for Trump’s political enemies were still under consideration. Biden also noted in the interview that he personally urged Trump “not to try to settle scores” when he met with the president-elect at the White House after his election victory in November.
Trump called Thompson and other committee members “thugs” and “reptiles” on Jan. 6. During an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press” last month, Trump accused committee members of destroying evidence, adding that “everyone on that committee … should go to jail.”
“They lied. And what did they do? They deleted and destroyed an entire year and a half worth of testimony. You know I can’t get — I think these people committed a great crime,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
on Tuesday, Ministry of Justice released a 137-page report detailing special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Because of Trump’s election victory, prosecutors were forced to drop the case, but the report, according to Smith, shows how Trump allegedly used “lies as a weapon to defeat the function of the federal government which is the foundation of the democratic process of the United States”.
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On Jan. 6, the committee concluded its work after about a year and a half of investigation with a final report that found Trump played a central role in the events that led to the siege of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and that there was enough evidence for federal prosecutors to impeach him. condemnation. The report included several criminal charges that the committee eventually forwarded to the Department of Justice.
