Republican lawmakers sought pardons because they feared prosecution of the crime of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election on spurious allegations of widespread voter fraud. Representative Mo Brooks urged pardons for the 147 Republican members of Congress who participated in the attempt.
Their votes came after 60 courts including the Supreme Court (three times), state election officials in every state, and all federal election officials and agencies and Trump’s own Attorney General, William Barr rejected their claim of voter fraud.
White House lawyer Eric Herschmann testified that the general concern behind the pardon request was that “we may get prosecuted.”
The fear of prosecution becomes even greater when combined with the history of Trump’s retaliation against his enemies. Voting to certify the 2020 electoral votes would clearly make those Republicans his enemies.
Also, the fear of investigation alone opens the likelihood of subpoenas, search warrants, grand-jury proceedings, witness interviews, seized communications, and other investigative processes which can lead to political embarrassment or incriminating evidence of conspiracy and other crimes.
Trump’s pernicious power over Republican members of Congress has enabled him to dismantle the Constitution’s guardrails against one branch of government exceeding and abusing its power. Allowing the Republicans on Trump’s leash to continue to enable Trump is knowing homicide. They need to be replaced either with Republicans not on Trump’s leash or Democrats. Only then can we begin to repair the damage Trump has done to our country and restore America to the honor, trust, and respect that Republicans helped strip away and return it to the once-respected global leader from a nation widely mocked, distrusted, and increasingly shunned .
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