Former President Donald Trump made comments about possibly pardoning those charged for their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots if he was reelected in 2024 on Saturday. However, he allegedly considered doing so already while he was still in office, a new report says.
"If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly," Trump said at his rally this past weekend. "And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly."
The comments from Trump have brought responses from the White House and the House Jan. 6 committee, who claimed he is engaging in witness tampering by making such declarations.
However, the new report from Politico shared that former Trump aides claimed the 45th president had thought about issuing a blanket pardon for those who were at the riot before mentioning it at his rally in Conroe, Texas, last Saturday.
The report detailed the advisers who spoke with him in the direct aftermath of the Jan. 6 event, and they were given anonymity to speak on the matter.
After hundreds of Americans stormed the United States Capitol, then-President Trump reportedly expressed sympathy for those involved, trying to find ways to shield them from legal consequences, Politico reported.
According to one adviser who spoke with Politico, any thought of pardons was stonewalled because there were too many possibilities for who could be prosecuted.
"You didn't know who the FBI was going to arrest down the road," the first adviser said.
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The adviser added that the White House counsel's office was firmly against Trump pushing his power.
"There was a dangling threat that if he pushed too hard, [White House counsel Pat] Cipollone would leave," the adviser said.
Cipollone declined a request to comment from Politico.
A second adviser shared that Trump's focus was more on challenging the election results and less on the blanket pardons. They added he was floating the idea more brainstorming and soliciting his aides' opinions than trying to adopt a plan.
Politico spoke with a third adviser who said Trump was already thinking of another run for office at the time, saying he asked if he could state his intention to run in 2024 before Biden's inauguration, which he did not attend.
"At the time, he wanted to not just be the leader of the party, but flat-out show the world that he's running again and you're not going to stop him," the person said.
The first adviser shared that Trump saw claiming the 2020 election was "rigged" as a way to energize his supporters until 2024.
"He wanted to carry the sense of grievance into the election cycle," the adviser said. "He said, 'I'm running again.'"
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