WASHINGTON — The Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol despatched letters on Monday in search of interviews with three Republican members of Congress, and the panel stated it had gathered proof that some Home Republicans sought presidential pardons within the aftermath of the violence that engulfed the Capitol.
The committee is requesting interviews with Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, the previous chief of the ultraconservative Home Freedom Caucus; Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, who has stated former President Donald J. Trump has continued to hunt reinstatement to workplace; and Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas, Mr. Trump’s former White Home physician.
In a letter to Mr. Biggs, the committee’s leaders wrote that they wished to query him about proof they’d obtained about efforts by sure Home Republicans to hunt a presidential pardon after Jan. 6 in reference to Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Your identify was recognized as a possible participant in that effort,” Consultant Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, and Consultant Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, the leaders of the committee, wrote to Mr. Biggs. “We wish to perceive all the small print of the request for a pardon, extra particular the explanation why a pardon was sought, and the scope of the proposed pardon.”
The committee additionally stated it wished to interview Mr. Biggs a few Dec. 21, 2020, assembly he attended on the White Home with a number of different members of the Freedom Caucus. There, the dialogue included a plan during which former Vice President Mike Pence would unilaterally refuse to depend sure states’ licensed electoral votes on Jan. 6.
Investigators stated in addition they had proof about Mr. Biggs’s efforts to influence state legislators to affix Mr. Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election.
The panel additionally desires to query Mr. Biggs about Ali Alexander, a distinguished organizer of so-called Cease the Steal rallies with ties to far-right members of Congress who sought to invalidate the 2020 election outcomes. Mr. Alexander has stated that he, together with Mr. Biggs, Mr. Brooks and Consultant Paul Gosar of Arizona, set the occasions of Jan. 6 in movement.
“We 4 schemed up of placing most strain on Congress whereas they had been voting,” Mr. Alexander stated in a since-deleted video posted on-line. He added that even when they couldn’t foyer the lawmakers, “we might change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who had been in that physique, listening to our loud roar from exterior.”
The committee described Mr. Alexander as “an early and aggressive proponent of the Cease the Steal motion who known as for violence earlier than Jan. 6.”
“We wish to perceive exactly what you knew earlier than the violence on Jan. 6 in regards to the functions, planning and expectations for the march on the Capitol,” Mr. Thompson and Ms. Cheney wrote to Mr. Biggs.
Mr. Brooks, who wore body armor onstage that day as he advised the gang to “begin taking down names and kicking ass,” and Mr. Biggs, who supplied a video message for Mr. Alexander to play at a Dec. 19 rally, have denied coordinating occasion planning with Mr. Alexander.
The panel desires to query Mr. Brooks about statements he made in March claiming that Mr. Trump had requested him repeatedly within the months because the election to illegally “rescind” the outcomes, take away President Biden and pressure a particular election.
Mr. Brooks stated Mr. Trump had made the request of him on a number of events since Sept. 1, 2021. He stated the previous president didn’t specify precisely how Congress might reinstall him, and that Mr. Brooks repeatedly advised him it was not possible.
“I advised President Trump that ‘rescinding’ the 2020 election was not a authorized possibility. Interval,” Mr. Brooks stated.
Investigators stated they’d questions for Mr. Jackson, the previous White Home physician who’s now a member of Congress, about why he was talked about in encrypted messages from the Oath Keepers, a militia group, a few of whose members have been charged criminally in reference to the assault. Within the messages, the militia members seem to have Mr. Jackson’s cellphone and say he’s “on the transfer” and “wants safety” because the violence was underway.
Members of the Oath Keepers, together with its chief, Stewart Rhodes, exchanged encrypted messages asking members of the group to offer Mr. Jackson personally with safety help, suggesting that he has “vital knowledge to guard,” in line with federal prosecutors.
“Why would these people have an curiosity in your particular location? Why would they consider you ‘have vital knowledge to guard’?” Mr. Thompson and Ms. Cheney wrote to Mr. Jackson. “Why would they direct their members to guard your private security? With whom did you communicate by cellphone that day?”
On Jan. 6, Mr. Jackson posted pictures of himself at Mr. Trump’s rally on the Ellipse that preceded the violence, and posted to Twitter: “American Patriots have your BACK Mr. President! We are going to FIGHT for YOU and we are going to struggle OUR nation!!”
Capitol Riot’s Aftermath: Key Developments
Mr. Thompson and Ms. Cheney wrote to Mr. Jackson: “We wish to talk about how and while you returned from the Ellipse to the Capitol, and the contacts you had with members within the rally or the next march from the Ellipse to the Capitol.”
Mr. Biggs and Mr. Brooks didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark in regards to the letters.
In an announcement, Mr. Jackson known as the committee “illegitimate” and stated he wouldn’t conform to an interview. He denied being involved with the members of the Oath Keepers.
“I have no idea, nor did I’ve contact with, those that exchanged textual content messages about me on Jan. 6,” Mr. Jackson stated. “In reality, I used to be proud to assist defend the Home flooring from those that posed a risk to my colleagues. The Committee’s witch hunt in opposition to me is nothing greater than a coordinated try and do the media’s work on taxpayers’ dime.”
The committee has to date chosen to not subject subpoenas for the testimony of members of Congress, citing the panel’s “great respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privateness of its members.”
“On the identical time, now we have a solemn accountability to analyze absolutely the details and circumstances of those occasions,” Mr. Thompson and Ms. Cheney wrote.
The panel has already sought interviews with Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader; Consultant Jim Jordan of Ohio; and Consultant Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Every has refused to fulfill with the committee’s investigators.
The panel has interviewed greater than 935 witnesses up to now.
The letters to members of Congress come after the committee picked up a courtroom victory late Sunday in opposition to the Republican Nationwide Committee, which had tried to dam a subpoena to a vendor, Salesforce.com.
The panel is investigating how Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign and the Republican Get together raised tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from donors whereas making the false declare that the election had been stolen, and a federal choose dominated investigators might get hold of the Republican Nationwide Committee’s advertising and marketing e-mail knowledge.
The Jan. 6 committee is planning a collection of public hearings in June to disclose its findings. Mr. Thompson has stated eight hearings will happen over a number of weeks starting June 9, some in prime time in an effort to draw a big tv viewers.
Alan Feuer contributed reporting.
