Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chaired the now-defunct House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, and has been targeted by President-elect Donald Trump over his work on the panel, on Monday said he has discussed a potential pardon with the White House.
In an interview with the outlet Punchbowl News, Thompson said he’d spoken to the White House counsel’s office about the possibility in December, but clarified that he hasn’t discussed the issue with outgoing President Joe Biden.
“A lot of people have said if this guy [Trump] said he’s going to do things, believe him,” Thompson said. “If the president offered a pardon based on the work of the committee, Bennie Thompson would accept it.”
Thompson previously told CNN that he would be open to receiving a pardon but noted that the decision to issue one is ultimately up to Biden.
In an interview with USA Today earlier this month, Biden said that he is considering preemptive pardons for people that Trump has threatened to take action against.
Trump has argued that jail time should be given to lawmakers who sat on the Jan. 6 committee, including Thompson and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who was the vice chair of the panel.
“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in comments aired last month. “Honestly, they should go to jail.”
Thompson told Punchbowl News that he anticipates Trump will target him and others after he takes office next week.
“I believe Donald Trump when he says he’s going to inflict retribution on this,” Thompson said. “I believe when he says my name and Liz Cheney and the others. I believe him.”
HuffPost has reached out to Thompson’s office for comment.
Trump has long attacked the work of the Jan. 6 committee, which detailed his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The panel referred four criminal charges against Trump to the Department of Justice in December 2022.
Though Trump was eventually indicted over the 2020 election scheme, DOJ special counsel Jack Smith moved to dismiss the case following Trump’s victory in last year’s presidential vote. Smith submitted a final report detailing his findings in that investigation, as well as in a case involving Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, to Attorney General Merrick Garland and has since resigned from his role.
The first volume of Smith’s report, pertaining to Trump’s election subversion case, was made public early Tuesday. Smith said the department had enough evidence to “obtain and sustain a conviction” were Trump to stand trial.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump criticized Smith over the document, while also lambasting the Jan. 6 panel.
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Thompson was among the recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal this month, including for his work on the committee.
Read Thompson’s full interview at Punchbowl News.
Brandi Buchman contributed to this report.