Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., sent an email to President Trump’s assistant five days after the Jan. 6 riots and recommended that he and other Republican members of Congress receive presidential pardons to protect them from potential prosecution.
The January 6 committee, a bipartisan group of legislators investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., revealed Brooks’ name during a hearing Thursday.
“The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., one of the committee members.
The committee displayed parts of an email it said was sent by Brooks to the White House regarding pardons. In that email, it recommended pardons for “every congressman and senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania.”
Among the Alabama lawmakers who voted to reject electoral college votes from those states: Brooks, Reps. Robert Aderholt, Jerry Carl, Barry Moore, Gary Palmer and Mike Rogers as well as Sen. Tommy Tuberville. A spokeswoman for Tuberville told AL.com on Thursday that the senator did not request a pardon.
Brooks provided a copy to AL.com of the Jan. 11, 2021, email the committee referred to regarding pardons. The email was sent to Molly Michael, a Trump assistant at the White House, at the request of Trump. The email also said it was sent at the request of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz.
Brooks recommended “general (all purpose) pardons to the following group of people:”
“Every Republican who signed the Amicus brief in the Texas lawsuit against other states deriving from their violation of Article I, Section 4 (and, perhaps, other) provision of the United States Constitution.
“Every congressman and senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania.”
Brooks concluded his email with, “America simply cannot permit socialist Democrats to abuse freedom of speech, freedom of association, United States Constitution and various federal statutes via their often-used strategy of abusing the judicial process via private organizations they fund or the prosecutorial arm they will soon control.”
In a statement to AL.com, Brooks said, “The email request says it all. There was concern Democrats would abuse the judicial system by prosecuting and jailing Republicans who acted pursuant to their Constitutional or statutory duties under (federal election law).
“Fortunately, with time passage, more rational forces took over and no one was persecuted for performing their lawful duties, which means a pardon was unnecessary after all.”
Brooks also alluded to a federal lawsuit brought against him and others, including Trump, for inciting the riot at the Capitol. A judge dismissed Brooks as a defendant.
“Further, an Obama-appointed federal judge has entered an order finding there is ‘no plausible argument’ my conduct in any way caused the Jan. 6 attack,” Brooks said.
Other legislators named in testimony regarding pardons were Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. The requests followed the attack on the Capitol.
“The general tone was, ‘We may get prosecuted because we were defensive of the president’s positions on these things,’” former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann said.
Brooks told the committee Thursday, in a response to a request to testify, that he would talk about what he did not January 6 -- but would not respond to committee questioning about efforts to rescind the 2020 election. Brooks said he told Trump, when asked by the president to help with efforts to overturn the election, that there was no legal path for such action.
Mo Brooks pardon email
This story will be updated.