Trump will 'most likely' pardon Capitol rioters on Day 1 and says Jan. 6 committee members should be jailed [View all]

Source: NBC

President-elect Donald Trump said he is looking to issue pardons to his supporters involved in the attacks on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as soon as his first day in office, saying those incarcerated are “living in hell.”

Trump’s comments, the most sweeping he’s made since winning the 2024 election, came during an exclusive interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker. He also said that he will not seek to turn the Justice Department on his political foes, and warned that some members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack “should go to jail.”

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Trump said that he would not direct Pam Bondi, his nominee to be the next attorney general, to investigate special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two separate federal cases against Trump that were ultimately dropped after the election. Trump called Smith “deranged” and said he thinks he is “very corrupt.” Ultimately, he said, he’d leave those decisions to Bondi, and said he would not direct her to prosecute Smith.

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He singled out Republican Liz Cheney, a vocal Trump critic who left Congress, and Democrat Bennie Thompson, who chaired the committee, saying they had destroyed the evidence collected in their investigation and “those people committed a major crime.”

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Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-will-likely-pardon-capitol-rioters-day-1-says-jan-6-committee-me-rcna183275