Playbook PM: Jan. 6 committee looking into potential Trump pardons

From: POLITICO Playbook - Monday May 02,2022 05:37 pm

May 02, 2022

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At this stage of the investigation, all eyes are on any details that suggest the committee may accuse former President Donald Trump or any of his alleged co-conspirators with criminal wrongdoing. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

PARDON US, BUT WE WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU — The Jan. 6 select committee today requested testimony from three more House Republicans who are connected to former President DONALD TRUMP’s push to overturn the 2020 election that ultimately led to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

This is unwelcome news for the three lawmakers, of course, but one thing that caught our attention is the committee’s interest in potential pardons (see below).

At this stage of the investigation, after the committee has talked to hundreds of people and secured countless documents via subpoenas, all eyes are on any details that suggest the committee may accuse Trump or any of his alleged co-conspirators with criminal wrongdoing. Naturally, you don’t need to pardon someone if they didn’t take an action that was against the law. And you normally wouldn’t inquire about a pardon if you didn’t think laws might have been broken.

The new requests: Arizona Rep. ANDY BIGGS, Texas Rep. RONNY JACKSON and Alabama Rep. MO BROOKS.

“It’s not clear if the three lawmakers will comply, but there’s ample precedent for them to decline: Three other Republican lawmakers previously targeted by the panel for questioning all rejected the requests, including House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY, and Jan. 6 committee members have expressed hesitancy to subpoena their congressional colleagues,” Nicholas Wu and Betsy Woodruff Swan report.

What investigators want to hear about:

“In its letter to Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the committee said multiple House Republican lawmakers sought presidential pardons ‘for activities taken in connection with President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.’”

“The committee said it wanted to ask Jackson about potential contacts or knowledge of members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group. A recently revealed trove of text messages showed conversations among Oath Keepers about members of Congress, including Jackson.” Worth noting: Last week, Jackson told our colleague Kyle Cheney that he “didn’t know what the Oath Keepers were until after January 6th,” and that he’d never heard of its leader, STEWART RHODES, “before in my life.”

“The panel’s ask of Brooks comes as he revealed in a March statement that the former president had floated attempts to rescind the 2020 election and restore himself to the presidency.” (Recall that Brooks and Trump recently had a falling out.)

Sounds like Jackson, at least, won’t be volunteering anything to the committee: “I will not participate in the illegitimate Committee’s ruthless crusade against President Trump and his allies,” he said, per Axios’ @AndrewSolender.

Good Monday afternoon.

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WAR IN UKRAINE

— The latest WaPo/ABC News poll on the U.S. response to Russia’s war in Ukraine has some good news for the White House: “The findings suggest that Biden’s policies largely reflect Americans’ preferences when it comes to the Russian invasion,” write WaPo’s Ashley Parker, Emily Guskin and Scott Clement. The toplines:

“In all, 73 percent say the United States is doing either the right amount or too little to support Ukraine.”

“72 percent oppose the U.S. taking direct military action against Russian forces, while 21 percent support the idea.”

“Even among those who say the United States is doing too little to support Ukraine, 57 percent oppose direct military action.”

THE LATEST ON THE GROUND — “As the first large-scale evacuation of civilians continued from the ruined, Russian-controlled city of Mariupol, Western leaders were working on Monday to put their increasingly aggressive promises of aid to Ukraine into action,” NYT’s Marc Santora and Shashank Bengali report.

“In Brussels, European Union energy ministers were discussing how to help their countries switch away from Russian energy sources urgently, as the bloc prepares this week to impose an embargo on Russian oil. Despite some reservations within Europe, countries such as Hungary appear ready to accept an embargo, a once-unthinkable step for a bloc whose members have long depended on Russian energy.”

— “Ukraine on Monday said it sank two Russian Naval vessels in the Black Sea with drone strikes,” WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov, Laurence Norman and Matthew Luxmoore write.

— “The CIA says Russians disaffected by VLADIMIR PUTIN’s invasion of Ukraine may be trying to get in touch with U.S. intelligence — and it wants them to go to the darknet,” AP’s Nomaan Merchant reports.

MEANWHILE, CLOSER TO HOME — “After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the United States slapped bans on Russian energy sources from oil to coal. But one critical Russian energy import was left alone: uranium, which the United States relies on to fuel more than 90 nuclear reactors around the country. That dependence on Russia is breathing life into ambitions to resurrect the uranium industry around the American West — and also evoking fears of the industry’s toxic legacy of pollution,” writes NYT’s Simon Romero.

CONGRESS

DREAMING OF 2023 — The race to lead the Republican Study Committee next year is already underway, Olivia Beavers writes for Congress Minutes . The choice looks like it may come down between Reps. KEVIN HERN (R-Okla.) and KAT CAMMACK (R-Fla.), who are making their intentions to seek the chairmanship role known. “Both candidates talked about pushing a more conservative agenda — unifying their members heading into the majority, taking shots at Democrats, pointing to the border and inflation, and praising Banks and other previous RSC leaders for their work.”

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE — Congress is starting to pay more attention to UFOs, and members are now getting real about oversight of the Pentagon's office. But the new briefings don’t have anyone phoning home just yet, Bryan Bender reports . “Members of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees received classified progress reports in recent weeks on a series of new data collection efforts the Pentagon and spy agencies are now required to pursue to more rigorously investigate reports of UFOs, three people with direct knowledge confirmed. But some leading sponsors of recent legislation want more analysts and surveillance systems dedicated to determining the aircrafts’ origin — and not just more reports of their existence.”

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ALL POLITICS

NO ROOM FOR DEBATE — Candidates in high-profile races are increasingly skipping the time-honored tradition of taking a debate stage with their fellow candidates. AP’s Sudhin Thanawala has the download on the growing trend: “TED BUDD has skipped four Republican primary debates in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina. GOP candidates for governor in Ohio, Nevada and Nebraska have also refused to engage with their opponents from the debate podium. And on Tuesday, HERSCHEL WALKER is expected to miss a second debate against his Republican rivals for a crucial U.S. Senate seat after skipping the first one. …

“For some gaffe-prone candidates such as Walker, avoiding the debate stage reduces the chance of an embarrassing moment. For others, it’s an opportunity to snub a media ecosystem they find elitist and cast themselves in the mold of former President Donald Trump, who made a show of missing some debates during the 2016 campaign.”

AD WARS — Primaries are rapidly approaching in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and GOP campaigns are blitzing the airwaves with ads. The latest hot topic? China . “Roughly one in nine ads aired so far this year in all House and Senate races have mentioned China, a Wall Street Journal analysis of broadcast-television and national cable data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact shows. That isn’t far behind mentions of inflation, another topic Republicans are especially eager to talk about. Of the almost 34,000 airings that have touched on China, more than 80% were sponsored by Republicans or conservative-leaning groups,” WSJ’s John McCormick writes.

MIDTERM MESSAGING — As Biden and Democratic Party leaders try to sort out a cohesive plan of attack for the midterms, some vulnerable Dems aren’t wasting any time and are actually going negative on their colleagues. “I'm taking on members of my own party to push a gas tax holiday,” Sen. MAGGIE HASSAN (D-N.H.) says in a new ad released today, in which she calls out Biden by name. Anthony Adragna has more for Congress Minutes …The ad

DEEP IN THE HEART —Ally Mutnick has the deets of new GOP data on the party’s prospects in a key Texas special election coming up. “Internal party polling conducted this month shows the GOP has a real shot at flipping former Democratic Rep. FILEMON VELA’S South Texas seat in the upcoming June special election. Republican MAYRA FLORES led Democrat DAN SANCHEZ by 5 points in a late April survey — and President Joe Biden’s job approval was underwater by 14 points in a district he carried by 4 points in 2020. A win in this once-deep blue seat would offer a big morale boost to Republicans, who have been making a play for Latino voters in the region.”

POLICY CORNER

ABORTION FILES — The anti-abortion movement is preparing for a hard road ahead if the Supreme Court restricts abortion rights later this year. What’s being discussed: “a push for a strict nationwide ban on the procedure if Republicans retake power in Washington,” WaPo’s Caroline Kitchener reports . “The effort, activists say, is designed to bring a fight that has been playing out largely in the courts and state legislatures to the national political stage — rallying conservatives around the issue in the midterms and pressuring potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates to take a stand. The discussions reflect what activists describe as an emerging consensus in some corners of the antiabortion movement to push for hard-line measures that will truly end a practice they see as murder while rejecting any proposals seen as half-measures.”

— Meanwhile, a coalition of groups that support abortion rights is rolling out a $150 million spending plan ahead of the 2022 midterms, Elena Schneider reports . “The groups — Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY’s List — will spend the nine-figure investment on paid ads, field programs, messaging research and polling in nine states, all of which feature top congressional and gubernatorial races this fall. The spending will be spread across offices up and down the ballot, from state legislative races to Senate races, in Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, California, Kansas and Wisconsin.”

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JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — The Supreme Court on Monday said it would leave “in place the illegal campaign contributions conviction of Kentucky businessman and former Democratic Party chief, JERRY LUNDERGAN,” per the AP. “As is typical, the justices did not say why they rejected his case.”

HEADS UP — Late on Sunday night, a federal judge “resoundingly supported the Jan. 6 select committee’s effort to obtain internal Republican National Committee data about efforts to fundraise off claims that the 2020 election was stolen,” Kyle Cheney reports. “In a landmark ruling rejecting an RNC lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge TIM KELLY said the select committee had demonstrated its need for the party’s data on its fundraising emails between Nov. 3, 2020, and Jan. 6, 2021 — when the RNC and Trump campaign sent supporters messages falsely suggesting the election was stolen. The committee contends those emails helped sow the seeds of the violence that erupted on Jan. 6.”

TRUMP CARDS

FOR YOUR RADAR — “Jury selection is slated to begin early Monday in downtown Atlanta for a special investigative panel that will delve into the actions of former President Donald Trump and his allies as they sought to reverse Georgia’s 2020 election results,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tamar Hallerman reports.

— Related reading: “Georgia official frantically texted Mark Meadows as Trump badgered secretary of state to ‘find’ votes,” by CNN’s Sara Murray, Jason Morris and Zachary Cohen

BOOK CLUB — JARED KUSHNER is planning to release a White House memoir in August, “with the publisher promising never-before-reported tales from the 2016 campaign, the Russia investigation, impeachment and COVID,” per Axios’ Mike Allen.

BETTER STICK TO TRUTH SOCIAL — MIKE LINDELL, the Trump-aligned CEO of MyPillow “was banned from Twitter for a second time after attempting to use a new account to access the social media platform,” writes the AP’s Michelle Chapman.

PLAYBOOKERS

SPOTTED at Esther Coopersmith’s spring open house Saturday, taking the place of her annual day after Thanksgiving open house, which has been canceled for the past two years: Justice Stephen Breyer, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Thai Ambassador Manasvi Srisodapol, Ecuadorian Ambassador Ivonne A-Baki, Czech Ambassador Hynek Kmoníček, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Carlos Gutierrez, Loretta Sanchez, Ed Royce, Willee Lewis, Marlene Malek, Janet Pitt, Connie Morella, Kathleen Kennedy and Annie Totah.

TRANSITIONS — Kate Childs Graham is rejoining West Wing Writers as a senior adviser. She previously was director of speechwriting for VP Kamala Harris. … Andrew Hallman is now VP for national security strategy and integration at Peraton. He previously was principal executive at ODNI and is a longtime CIA veteran. … Venn Strategies is adding Kate Marks as SVP, Alexandra Holmes and Kyla Taylor as associates on the critical infrastructure team, and Jacob Petote and Tyler Lazenby as client services associates. Marks most recently was deputy assistant secretary of Energy in the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response.

WEDDING — David Planning, staff director for the House Small Business GOP and a Trump White House alum, and Dana Hurtik, director of operations at GOPAC, got married April 9 in a ceremony at St. Aloysius Church. Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Rebecca Coffman, COO of Citizen Data and an RNC and Stand Together alum, and Mike Lurie, director of video production at Stand Together, welcomed Shiloh Reyburn Lurie on Friday. Pic

Correction: Friday’s Playbook PM misattributed a comment to California congressional candidate Jay Chen. A voter was the one who called Rep. Michelle Steel a “lousy speaker.”

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