US Senator Lindsey Graham has stated that officials who investigated Donald Trump supporters’ deadly attack on the US Capitol in 2021 should not be imprisoned, contrary to what his Republican colleague has argued in advance of his second presidency.
During a Sunday interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker asked Graham if he agreed with Trump’s statement on the show seven days earlier that those involved in the investigation of the January 6 Capitol attack “should go to jail.”
“No,” said Graham, South Carolina’s senior senator and the chamber’s ranking member on the judiciary and budget committees.
Welker posed the question to Graham during a segment designed to elicit quick responses, which she acknowledged by saying, “OK—that was very clear and concise.”
The exchange demonstrated Graham’s occasional willingness to publicly disagree with Trump while remaining a staunch ally, and it occurred amid a broader political debate over who should be pardoned in connection with an attack on Congress that resulted in multiple deaths, including the suicides of traumatized law enforcement officers.
Though exceptions may apply, Trump will pardon the attackers in January 2025 to start his second term. On December 8, he discussed with Welker the pressure his supporters faced to accept guilty pleas, a violent and desperate attempt to keep him in the White House after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
Trump denied ordering his second administration to arrest elected officials who investigated the Capitol attack after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in November, a move that led to the dismissal of federal criminal charges against him. Nonetheless, he made sure to tell Welker, “Honestly, they should go to jail.”
Bernie Sanders, the liberal US senator, made a separate appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday, saying Biden should “very seriously consider” issuing preemptive pardons to those investigating the Capitol attack, as others have suggested.
Sanders did not provide any names, but a week earlier, Trump mentioned the names of Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, the chairperson and vice-chairperson of the US House committee that convened for the investigation.
Sanders emphasized that arresting elected officials who conduct investigations is a sign of authoritarianism and dictatorship, not democracy.
Sanders further commented: “You just heard Lindsey Graham make that statement—I think that idea of Trump is not going to go very far.”
In the January 6 attack, more than 1,250 people have entered guilty pleas or received convictions. At least 645 individuals have received prison sentences that range from a few days to 22 years.
During his interview with Welker on December 8, Trump blamed those convictions on “a very corrupt system” that he would keep in check through pardons, despite criticizing Biden’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter, for lying on gun ownership application forms and tax evasion.
In May, a New York state court convicted Trump of criminally falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.