In the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Donald Trump reportedly attempted to issue a blanket pardon for all his supporters who participated in the attack in order to shield them from legal consequences, but was stopped by White House advisors who strongly advised him not to do so, Politico reports.
Citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter, Politico reported Wednesday that “between Jan. 6 and Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump made three calls to advisers to discuss the idea.
“Do you think I should pardon them? Do you think it’s a good idea? Do you think I have the power to do it?” Trump told asked an adviser, who summarized their conversations, according to Politico.
Another adviser to the former president said Trump asked questions about how participants in the riot might be charged criminally, and how a uniform pardon could provide them protection going forward.
“Is it everybody that had a Trump sign or everybody who walked into the Capitol” who could be pardoned? Trump asked, according to that adviser. “He said, ‘Some people think I should pardon them.’ He thought if he could do it, these people would never have to testify or be deposed.”
As noted by the outlet, however, “Trump’s consideration of preemptive pardons quickly hit a wall. It was unclear how he could pardon an entire class of people that hadn’t been charged. “You didn’t know who the FBI was going to arrest down the road,” the first adviser said.”
At the same time, the White House counsel’s office was forcefully telling Trump what he could not do as president, this person said, according to Politico.
A third adviser who spoke with Trump frequently in the final days before he left office recalled that Trump asked questions about whether he should announce his intention to run again in 2024 before Biden’s inauguration.
“He wanted to carry the sense of grievance into the election cycle,” the adviser said before adding that Trump saw announcing his presidency right away as a way to frame any future prosecutions against him as politically motivated.
