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Rep. Pete Aguilar, a senior Democrat who served on the congressional committee investigating President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, expects no favors from the outgoing commander in chief.
He said he believes a preemptive pardon of President Joe Biden, protecting him from possible retaliation by Trump, is unnecessary because the Jan. 6 committee “did nothing wrong.”
“I don’t think a pardon is necessary. I stand by the work we did,” Aguilar told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday at the committee.
The California Democrat also said he “has not asked for a pardon,” nor has he spoken to anyone in the White House approximately one Fox News Digital reached out to Aguilar to ask if he would accept one, if granted, but did not hear back.
Lawmakers who served on the House committee investigating Jan. 6 have been divided on the importance of a preemptive pardon. Some fear it will set a bad precedent for future presidents and say the Constitution’s speech and debate clause provides adequate protection against criminal prosecution, or civil lawsuits, over their legislative work. Others, meanwhile, have welcomed the idea of a pardon, fearing “retribution” from Trump.
MICHAEL COHEN ASKS BIDEN’S PRESIDENTIAL PARDON: ‘I’M SOMEBODY’S SON TOO’
U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, left, and Washington Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges listen as the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on The US Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on October 13, 2022.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the former Jan. 6 committee investigating Trump, said he spoke with the White House last month about the possibility of issuing pardons for lawmakers who served on of the committee and said he would accept a pardon from Biden if granted.
“I believe donald trump “When he says he’s going to inflict retribution for this,” Thompson said this week. “I believe when he says my name and Liz Cheney and the others. I believe him.”
Aside from Thompson, no other committee members have indicated they will accept a pardon that Biden granted them. However, they stopped short of saying whether they would reject one.
“I have not been in contact with the White House. I have not sought any,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who served on the committee, said Tuesday.
“It would be the wrong precedent to set. I don’t want every president going forward walking out the door giving a broad category of pardons,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who also served on the committee. , he said in an interview with CNN earlier this month. Former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger made the same argument as Schiff, but took it a step further, saying he didn’t want one.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said during a live event hosted by Politico this week that he wasn’t sure what the right call was for Biden.
“Different people have different feelings about the whole pardon thing because there are these outrageous threats being made against people just for doing their job, like the prosecutors on Jan. 6 at the Department of Justice,” Raskin said. He added that “in a just world” there would be no need for a pardon because the committee did nothing wrong.
“I’m glad we have a wise president with wise people around him who will be able to figure this out,” Raskin said.
BIDEN’S HHS SECRETARY WARNS AGAINST IMPLICATIONS OF PRE-EMPTIVE PARDON FOR FAUCI, OTHERS
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., left, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chaired the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, are speak on the House floor as lawmakers gather for a joint session of Congress to certify Electoral College votes in the presidential election, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6 2025
During Biden’s final interview as president with a print publication last week, he indicated that preemptive pardons for Trump’s political enemies were still under consideration. Biden also noted in the interview that he had personally urged Trump not to “try to settle scores” when he met with the president-elect at the White House after his November election victory.
Trump has referred to Thompson and other members of the Jan. 6 committee as “thugs” and “spoilers.” During an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press” last month, Trump accused members of the committee of destroying evidence, adding that “every member of this committee … should go to jail.” .
BIDEN SAYS ‘I MEANT WHAT I SAID’ AS HE PROMISES NOT TO PARDON HUNTER, HOPE HE CAN’T SET A PRECEDENT
“They lied. And what did they do? They erased and destroyed an entire year and a half of testimony. You know I can’t get, I think these people committed a major crime,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
on Tuesday, the Department of Justice released a 137-page report detailing special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Because of Trump’s election victory, prosecutors were forced to drop the case, but the report, according to Smith, shows how Trump allegedly used “lies as a weapon to defeat a function of the federal government critical to the American democratic process.”
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The committee on Jan. 6 concluded its work after about a year and a half of investigations with a final report that determined Trump played a central role in the events that led to the siege at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 and that there was enough evidence for federal prosecutors to convict him. The report included several criminal referrals that the committee eventually forwarded to the Justice Department.
