WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene contacted the White House to request a pardon after the deadly riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a former White House aide.
Greene’s office told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that she did not request a pardon for any reason at any time, and criticized the media for spreading what a spokesman described as a “conspiracy theory.” After the aide’s remarks were made public, Greene again denied that she requested a pardon.
Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, told a different story during testimony to the U.S. House committee investigating the insurrection.
In video footage aired during Thursday’s hearing. Hutchinson recounts the members who contacted her to request pardons. An investigator asked Hutchinson directly about Greene, a Republican from Rome.
Hutchinson said she did not hear directly from Greene but was told that deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin had been contacted.
“I heard that she asked White House Counsel’s Office for a pardon from Mr. Philbin,” Hutchinson said.
In all, Hutchinson identified roughly a half-dozen conservative lawmakers she said contacted her directly or another White House official to ask for a pardon for themself or others.
She said Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Matt Gaetz of Florida inquired about blanket pardons for anyone who had been involved in “stop the steal” efforts focused on overturning the election results. Greene was among a group of representatives and members-elect who attended a December 2020 meeting at the White House to discuss possible strategies.
Greene has maintained all along that she was focused only on legal ways to reject Biden’s victory, that she had nothing to do with the Jan. 6 violence and that she was horrified by it. She wrote on Twitter that the testimony shared during the hearing Thursday was not true and criticized the panel’s investigation.
“Saying ‘I heard’ means you don’t know,” Greene wrote. “Spreading gossip and lies is exactly what the January 6th Witch Hunt Committee is all about.”
In closing remarks, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, said there was no reason for lawmakers to request pardons if they did not believe any laws were broken.
“The only reason that I know to ask for a pardon,” he said, “is because you think you have committed a crime.”
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