Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) sent the Trump White House an email requesting pardons for hundreds of Republican lawmakers who attempted to overthrow the 2020 election, saying he did so at the behest of then-President Donald Trump, according to CBS reporter Robert Costa, who tweeted Thursday that Brooks had shared the email with him.
The email, 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 results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, states Joe Biden won.
The email also requests pardons for all 126 Republicans who, in December 2020, signed an amicus brief for a Texas lawsuit that sought to challenge the election results in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia — states Biden also won.
“Dear Mollie: President Trump told me to send you this letter,” the email begins, adding that it’s also “pursuant to a request” from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
“It is clear that deep-pocketed and vitriolic Socialist Democrats … are going to abuse America’s judicial system by targeting numerous Republicans with sham charges deriving from our recent fight for honest and accurate elections and speeches related thereto,” the email reads. It then requests “general (all purpose) pardons” for the lawmakers.
Ultimately, Trump did not 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,” no one yet has been “persecuted for performing their lawful duties, which means a pardon was unnecessary.”
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 in the White House.”
Last week, Brooks lost the primary 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 about the events surrounding the insurrection.
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 only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime,” committee member Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said at the hearing.