WASHINGTON — Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, sought a pardon from former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the House committee investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results revealed Thursday.
During the panel’s fifth hearing, members played a video clip of Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, as she listed off members of Congress who had sought pardons.
Those members included Reps. Andy Biggs R-Ariz., Scott Perry R-Pa.. and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Hutchinson said.
“Mr. Gohmert asked for one as well,” Hutchinson said.
In another video clip, former White House staffer John McEntee said there was discussion about a blanket pardon for those involved in Jan. 6.
“The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you have committed a crime,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., one of only two Republicans on the panel, said at the close of the hearing.
Gohmert did not immediately respond for comment.
Thursday’s hearing focused on Trump’s attempt to get the Justice Department to help overturn the election results.
The committee highlighted the roles of Ken Klukowski, a lawyer hired by the Justice Department after the 2020 election, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and John Eastman, a lawyer and Trump adviser who worked to overturn the election results.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., cited an email from former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell suggesting that Klukowski and Eastman brief Vice President Mike Pence.
Gohmert’s chief of staff was also a recipient of the email, Cheney said.
The committee also discussed a letter to then-Attorney General William Barr criticizing the Justice Department for a “shocking lack of action” investigating claims of election fraud. Gohmert was one of the signers on that letter.
Kinzinger noted Barr stated publicly that Trump’s claims had no actual merit.
“Ignoring the top law enforcement officer in the country, Republican congressmen amplified the stolen election message to the American public,” Kinzinger said, before playing a clip of GOP lawmakers.
In that clip, dated Dec. 3, 2020, the first lawmaker to speak is Gohmert.
“There’s widespread evidence of fraud because people haven’t done their jobs,” Gohmert said. “(John) Durham and Barr will deserve a big notation in history when it’s written of the rise and fall of the United States if they don’t clean up this mess, clean up the fraud. Do your jobs and save this little experiment in self-government.”
Gohmert was active in contesting the 2020 election results before and after Jan. 6.
On Jan. 6, Gohmert voted not to certify election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
He also signed onto a brief asking the Supreme Court to discard votes in key states Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Gohmert unsuccessfully attempted to sue former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results.
Gohmert suggested at one point that “violence in the streets” might be the only option left to block Joe Biden from becoming president.
While Gohmert did not have an immediate reaction to his moment in the spotlight, he had previously criticized the committee hearings as Democratic propaganda.
