Rudy asked for a pardon related to riots – testimony

Rudy Giuliani asked for a pardon from former President Donald Trump for his misdeeds related to the Jan. 6 attack according to Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Hutchinson testified on Tuesday before the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection that the former mayor and Meadows requested pardons from the former president over their roles in planning and helping to execute the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“He did,” Hutchinson said, referring to Giuliani’s request for a pardon.

Giuliani did not immediately respond to requests for comment. After Hutchinson’s appearance, he tweeted “Liar” at a Twitter user who accused him of asking for a pardon.

In riveting testimony, Hutchinson recalled walking Giuliani, who was Trump’s lawyer, out of the White House when he asked if she was “excited about the 6th.”

“We’re going to the Capitol, it’s going to be great, the president’s going to be there, he’s going to look powerful,” she recalled Giuliani saying.

When she returned inside and told Meadows of that conversation, he told her a lot was going on.

“Things might get real, real bad,” Meadows told her, she recalled.

Hutchinson delivered smoking-gun testimony about Trump’s unhinged and petulant behavior on Jan. 6, including lunging toward the steering wheel of the presidential limo because he wanted to visit the Capitol to telling Meadows that he “thinks Mike deserves it,” in reference to the chants of “Hang Mike Pence” at the Capitol after then-Vice President Pence refused to overturn the election.

The 45th president, however, did not issue a pardon for Giuliani in the dying days of his administration.

The one-time personal Trump lawyer remains under federal investigation for his actions in an unrelated scheme tied to the effort to smear then-candidate Joe Biden.

Giuliani joins an ever-growing list of Trump acolytes who hoped to protect themselves from prosecution after the shocking Jan. 6 attack.

Lawmakers said last week that the two July hearings would focus on domestic extremists who breached the Capitol that day and on what Trump was doing as the violence unfolded.