Former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testifies on Jan. 6 warnings, pardon requests, and Trump trying to grab the wheel
"He wanted Mr. Clark — Mr. Jeff Clark to take over the Department of Justice," Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Meadows aide, said about Perry in a clip of her deposition that was played at Thursday's hearing.
The committee also unveiled new details about Republican members of Congress seeking pardons after Jan. 6, including Perry and Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Matt Gaetz of Florida.
"President Trump asked me to send you this letter. This letter is also pursuant to a request from Matt Gaetz," said an email Brooks sent to the White House in January 2021, according to the committee. "As such, I recommend that president give general (all purpose) pardons to the following groups of people."
The email included a group of the names of "every congressman and senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania."
Thursday's hearing was led by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who has largely been ostracized by the Republican conference for his role on the Jan. 6 committee.
"My colleagues up here also take an oath. Some of them failed to uphold theirs and instead chose to spread the big lie," Kinzinger said before discussing pardons.
Kinzinger is retiring at the end of his term.
Inside a December 2020 Oval Office meeting
The hearing brought to life a high-stakes Oval Office meeting in December 2020, where Trump considered firing the acting attorney general and installing Clark, who was willing to use the powers of federal law enforcement to encourage state lawmakers to overturn Trump's loss.
Going into these summer hearings, we already knew a lot about the meeting. But on Thursday, for the first time, we heard live testimony from some of the Justice Department officials who were in the room, including Rosen, the then-acting attorney general. (He survived the meeting, after Trump was told that there would be mass resignations at the Justice Department if he replaced Rosen with Clark.)
Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann said Clark was repeatedly "clobbered over the head" during the meeting. He told the committee that he called Clark a "f---ing a--hole" and said his plans would've been illegal. He also said Clark's plan to send letters to battleground states was "nuts."
