Liz Cheney is ready to reveal Republican colleagues who asked Trump for presidential pardons after the January 6 riot
Win McNamee/Getty Images
- Liz Cheney said White House staff identified GOP lawmakers who sought January 6-related pardons.
- Cheney previously named Republican Rep. Scott Perry as one pardon seeker.
- The committee was expected to name the other congressional petitioners Thursday.
January 6 select committee co-chair Liz Cheney promised to end the panel's fifth public hearing by naming names of the congressional Republicans who allegedly asked Donald Trump for presidential pardons after the attack on the US Capitol.
"At the close of today's hearing, we will see video testimony of three members of Donald Trump's White House staff. They will identify certain members of Congress who contacted the White House after January 6 seeking presidential pardons," the Wyoming Republican said Thursday during her opening remarks.
Cheney teased during the panel's first hearing that investigators had uncovered evidence of sitting members of Congress lobbying the embattled former president to clear them of any wrongdoing before leaving office, naming Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, specifically, as one of the petitioners.
Perry, who has been subpoenaed by the committee regarding his interaction with former Justice Department official Jeff Clark, denied the accusation.
"The notion that I ever sought a Presidential pardon for myself or other Members of Congress is an absolute, shameless, and soulless lie," Perry wrote on social media.
Trump's ill-fated attempt to install Clark as acting attorney general in order to advance his campaign's bogus election fraud strategy is the focal point of Thursday's hearing on the former president's bid to tamper with the DOJ.