Donald Trump's Allies Already Gave 'Confessions'—Legal Analyst

Allies to former President Donald Trump allegedly already gave "confessions" in relation to their actions leading up to and on January 6, 2021, legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said on Friday.

On that fateful day, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. The riot erupted following claims from Trump that the election had been stolen from him via widespread voter fraud. Despite there being no evidence to back up his claims, Trump's allies on Capitol Hill spread the same claims and his supporters believed them.

More than a thousand rioters have been charged in relation to the attack on the Capitol and Trump currently faces four felony counts for his alleged actions surrounding the riot. The former president has pleaded not guilty and claims the federal case against him is politically motivated.

In a show of unity between House Republicans and Trump, the former president made a visit to the Capitol on Thursday. This was the first time he's been there since January 6, 2021, when he gave a speech at The Ellipse near the White House and encouraged his supporters to "stop the steal." Trump was not at the Capitol building when it was stormed by his supporters.

Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent critic of the former president, said in a YouTube video posted on Friday for his show Justice Matters, "People who are trying to kill our democracy from within, some of whom just warmly received and applauded the insurrectionist-in-chief, Donald Trump, for his triumphant return to the crime scene, the U.S. Capitol." Trump, meanwhile, has said he did not incite an insurrection at the Capitol.

Kirschner continued: "Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Scott Perry, Mo Brooks, Louie Gohmert, Andy Biggs, Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman—the nefarious nine. Nine people who asked for presidential pardons in connection with the insurrection. Why does somebody ask for a pardon? Because they knew they committed crimes on and around January 6th. And they wanted to get away with those crimes."

None of the nine people mentioned by Kirschner have been charged with any crimes relating to the riot.

Kirschner then went into the various steps he would typically take as a prosecutor in hopes of getting a confession from a suspect. However, he said, "When it comes to the nefarious nine, we already have the confession."

The former prosecutor then cited instructive language from the Supreme Court in a 1915 case, George Burdick vs. the United States: "Pardons carry an imputation of guilt. And acceptance of it, acceptance of a pardon, a confession of it. A confession of guilt."

Kirschner added: "So we've got the confessions from the nefarious nine. All we have to do, is fill in the facts with an investigation of the crimes the nefarious nine committed that prompted them to ask for presidential pardons."

Representative Gaetz, a Florida Republican, told Newsweek via email on Saturday, "Glenn Kirshner predicted I'd be in prison by now so we don't exactly take his analysis as the gospel."

Newsweek has reached out to Greene, Perry, Brooks, Biggs, Meadows, Giuliani and Eastman via email as well as Gohmert via social media direct message for comment. It also reached out to Trump's spokesperson, Steven Cheung, via email for comment.

When asked if any of Trump's allies will get charged for any alleged actions surrounding the January 6 riot, Kirschner told Newsweek via text message on Saturday, "I suspect some ultimately [will] be charged federally, certainly the ones who are unindicted co-conspirators in the Trump prosecution in DC. As to the others, it's anybody's guess, as the rule of law is not being robustly applied to what I refer to as the ruling class criminals."

There are multiple co-conspirators mentioned in Trump's federal indictment, but their identities have not been revealed.

Presidential Pardons

During a hearing conducted by the House select committee tasked with investigating the riot, former Trump administration officials revealed several Republican politicians allegedly asked Trump for pardons in the wake of the 2020 election.

Then-Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, who was one of two Republicans to sit on the select committee, said during the hearing that five days after January 6, Brooks, then-Republican Alabama congressman, sent an email to the White House asking for a pardon for himself, Gaetz, and "unnamed others."

Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an assistant to former chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that she heard that Representative Greene, a Georgia Republican, asked the White House Counsel's Office for a pardon.

Hutchinson said her former boss Meadows, Representative Biggs, an Arizona Republican; then-Representative Gohmert, a Texas Republican, and Representative Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, also asked for a pardon.

Meanwhile, Maria Ryan, a former associate of Giuliani—ex-New York City mayor who served as Trump's personal lawyer in the wake of the 2020 election— allegedly sought a "general pardon" for Giuliani from Trump just after January 6, but it never reached Trump, according to a 2022 book titled, Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor, by Andrew Kirtzman.

Eastman, a conservative lawyer who played a key role in Trump's attempt to overturn the election results, allegedly asked Giuliani to put him on a presidential pardon list days after the riot, according to the House select committee.

Update 6/15/24, 1:21 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

Update 6/15/24, 3:10 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Kirschner.