TWO TIERS

Speaker Mike Johnson Says He’ll Probe Biden’s Pardons But Trump Freeing Jan 6. Thugs Is ‘Redemption’

And Republicans are launching a new Jan. 6 investigation—because Democrats were “peddling false narratives.”

Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that Congress will “look into” Joe Biden pardoning his family—but said Donald Trump’s clemency for Jan. 6 rioters was about “redemption.”

The top House Republican also announced another select committee on January 6, this time GOP-led, claiming that the previous one, made up of Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans, had “peddled” falsehoods. His announcement came less than 24 hours after the newly sworn-in Trump ranted about Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the previous committee, being a “crying lunatic.”

But it was his announcement at a press conference in the Capitol that he would have his members “look into” the Biden pardons that is likely to raise most eyebrows.

In one of his final acts as president, Biden pardoned members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, GOP bogeyman Anthony Fauci and retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who called Trump a “total fascist.”

Biden also pardoned his family members, which Johnson called “disgusting.”

“To us, it probably proves the point. The suspicion that, you know, they call it the Biden crime family. If they weren’t the crime family, why do they need pardons? Right?” Johnson also said.

PARTING SHOT

Biden Burns Trump One Final Time With Last-Minute Pardons

Dan Ladden-Hall

“House Republicans are proud of our work so far in exposing the false narratives peddled by the politically motivated January 6 Select Committee during the 117th Congress, but there is still more work to be done,” Johnson said in a statement. “We are establishing this Select Subcommittee to continue our efforts to uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people. The composition and other details regarding the Select Subcommittee will be announced soon.”

Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, who previously led a counter investigation to the Jan. 6 select committee led by Reps. Bennie Thompson and former Rep. Cheney, will chair the new panel.

Loudermilk alleged the preemptive pardons for members, staff and witnesses of the original Jan. 6 panel under Democratic control—which Trump allies in Congress have largely looked to paint as politically motivated—signaled wrongdoing.

And some Republicans want to see the members who received pardons from Biden testify.

“Implication is that they needed the pardons… So, let’s call them all before Congress and demand the truth,” Rep. Chip Roy posted on X.

In one of his first acts as president on Sunday, Trump freed the Jan. 6 convicts, who he called “hostages.”

“I think what was made clear all along is that peaceful protests and people who engage in that should never be punished. There was a weaponization of the Justice Department—there was a weaponization of the events that happened after Jan. 6,” Johnson said of Trump’s pardons.

“It was a terrible time and a terrible chapter in America’s history. The president has made his decision and I don’t second guess those. And yes, it is kind of my ethos and my world view. We believe in redemption,” he added.

Johnson’s move to investigate Biden’s pardons is not unprecedented. In 2001, Congress investigated former President Bill Clinton’s pardon of the (now late) fugitive billionaire Marc Rich—specifically whether the eleventh-hour decree was linked to Rich’s ex-wife’s donations to Democratic campaigns, including Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate bid.

Johnson’s comments demonstrate a sharp contrast from his statement released shortly after the attack on the Capitol, in which he said he ”unambiguously” condemned “in the strongest possible terms any and all forms of violent protest.”

“Any individual who committed violence today should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said on that deadly day on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, beat and pepper sprayed police officers and threatened to hang Mike Pence.

THIN BLUE LINE

Trump’s Betrayal of Jan. 6’s True Hero Is Shame for the Ages

Michael Daly

While Johnson is standing by Trump’s decision, a number of prominent GOP lawmakers, including former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, condemned the release of rioters who attacked police officers, marking one of the first significant rebukes since Trump took office on Monday.

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