U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., one of the leading figures in the effort to throw out Pennsylvania’s votes in the 2020 presidential election, was one of several members of Congress who contacted the White House seeking a pardon from Donald Trump in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, the vice chair of the House committee investigating the attack said in its first public hearing Thursday.
In her opening remarks of the committee’s primetime hearing, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R.-Wyo., referenced Perry, one of Trump’s most loyal allies in Congress, and one who took several steps to try to overturn the election results — including by trying to install an ally at the Department of Justice who would support Trump’s false claims about a stolen election.
When those efforts failed, Perry led the charge on Jan. 6 to block congressional certification of Pennsylvania’s election outcome. Hours after the Capitol riot, as blood and broken windows marked the building, Perry urged Congress to throw out Pennsylvania’s nearly 7 million votes. In the weeks leading up to that day, he had played a major role behind the scenes in trying to turn Trump’s election lie into reality.
