Jan. 6 lawmakers say pardons given ‘not for breaking the law but upholding it’

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the two leaders of the now-disbanded Jan. 6 committee, thanked former President Biden for a pardon they said was “not for breaking the law but upholding it.”

Just hours before leaving office, Biden announced he would issue pardons for all the members of the committee — even as some had previously suggested they did not want one. 

The statement — issued on behalf of all nine members of the panel — said they were “not deterred” from their work despite numerous threats.

“We express our gratitude to President Biden for recognizing that we and our families have been continuously targeted not only with harassment, lies and threats of criminal violence, but also with specific threats of criminal prosecution and imprisonment by members of the incoming administration, simply for doing our jobs and upholding our oaths of office. We have been pardoned today not for breaking the law but for upholding it,” the two said in a statement. 

“These are indeed ‘extraordinary circumstances’ when public servants are pardoned to prevent false prosecution by the government for having worked faithfully as Members of Congress to expose the facts of a months-long criminal effort to override the will of the voters after the 2020 elections, including by inciting a violent insurrection to thwart the peaceful transfer of power. Such a prosecution would be ordered and conducted by persons who led this unprecedented attack on our constitutional system.”

President Trump has lobbed numerous threats and insults at the members of the panel. He suggested Cheney should be shot by a firing squad and also said Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was part of the “enemy within.” 

The statement on the pardons represents a turnaround for some of the members. 

Many had previously said they were not interested in a pardon as they had not committed any crimes by investigating the effort to block the peaceful transfer of power. 

Their final report pinned Trump as being at the center of an unlawful campaign to remain in power by pressuring those across government and later inciting a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol. 

Some of the panel’s members had said a pardon would be unnecessary and would send the wrong message. Members would likely be insulated from any prosecution related to their work, as the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution bars such actions. 

“I continue to believe that the grant of pardons to a committee that undertook such important work to uphold the law was unnecessary, and because of the precedent it establishes, unwise,” Schiff said in a statement after the pardon was announced.

“But I certainly understand why President Biden believed he needed to take this step in light of the persistent and baseless threats issued by Donald Trump and individuals who are now some of his law enforcement nominees.”

In a speech to supporters gathered at the Capitol after his inaugural address, Trump repeated a number of false claims about the committee, again accusing them of deleting evidence, while mocking the former members.

“Why are we helping some of these people? Why are we helping Liz Cheney? She’s a disaster — she’s a crying lunatic,” he said, going on to call former Rep. Adam Kinziner (R-Ill.) a “super cryer” and blaming the attack that day on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Trump then complained the panel “destroyed and deleted all of that information.”

The committee’s final report, all of its depositions and interviews and numerous other exhibits are all publicly available online.

Cheney later pushed back against Trump’s claims.

“Trump’s remarks in the Capitol Visitor Center today were a reminder that neither lies nor the liar who tells them get better with age. The Select Committee evidence is available on multiple websites and, as a criminal defendant, Donald Trump has had access to all the transcripts for years,” she wrote on X.

“Remember Trump’s character: He sat in his dining room watching on television as his supporters attacked our Capitol and brutally assaulted law enforcement. For hours, he refused to instruct the mob to leave. The truth will never change.”

—Updated at 5:12 p.m.