OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
In his first sit-down interview since winning the presidential election, Donald Trump told NBC News’ Meet the Press that he remains committed to pardoning individuals convicted for their involvement in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
In addition, the president-elect also stated that members of the Democrat-dominated House committee that claimed to investigate the incident “should go to jail.”
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker. “So you think Liz Cheney should go to jail?” Welker asked.
“For what they did,” Trump responded.
However, Trump made it clear that he would not direct his FBI director or attorney general to do so, adding, “they’ll have to look at that, but I’m not going to — I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill. I’m going to look at everything. We’re going to look at individual cases.”
The incoming commander-in-chief also intimated that he may try and take executive action to end so-called “birthright citizenship” — meaning the children of people in the country illegally automatically become American citizens when they’re born in the U.S., though he’ll likely face a legal challenge what will question the constitutionality of such an order.
Welker also questioned Trump about his plans for mass deportation.
“Well, I think you have to do it, and it’s a hard – it’s a very tough thing to do,” Trump said. “But you have to have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally. You know the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been on line for ten years to come into the country. And we’re going to make it very easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test.”
Trump’s comments come as reports said that President Joe Biden is considering preemptive pardons for several people including Cheney, her committee co-chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), and former top immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Trump went on to praise several of his Cabinet nominees, including Kash Patel, whom he will nominate to replace retiring FBI Director Christopher Wray.
That said, the FBI during the Trump and Biden years spied on its likely new director, according to a new Department of Justice inspector general report.
Patel has pledged to “clean house” at the Hoover Building and hold accountable all those who “abused their power” during the Russiagate “witch hunt.”
He may begin by addressing the officials and agents who secretly collected his phone records and emails starting in late 2017. At that time, he was leading a House Intelligence Committee investigation into the FBI’s use of false opposition research from Hillary Clinton to surveil a Trump campaign official, labeling them as a supposed “Russian agent,” RealClearInvestigations correspondent Paul Sperry wrote.
A nearly 100-page report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General reveals that the FBI issued subpoenas for records as part of an investigation, which aimed to determine whether congressional staffers leaked classified information regarding the Trump-Russia “collusion” case to the Washington Post and other media outlets, Sperry noted.
He added:
Working with career prosecutors at Justice, the FBI compelled Google and Apple to turn over the sensitive private information of subjects the FBI identified “between September 2017 and March 2018,” a period when Andrew McCabe was the acting FBI director. (Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions was out of the loop, the report said, having recused himself from the Russia probe.)
The court orders gagged the service providers from notifying Patel and other customers of the intrusion.
As chief counsel, Patel had no idea that the subject of his investigation — the FBI — was collecting his data and increasing the visibility of witnesses he was communicating with, including whistleblowers.
At the time, Patel was seeking access to FBI documents and to depose FBI witnesses to determine whether the bureau had misused its authority in securing a FISA warrant to surveil Trump aide Carter Page, Sperry wrote.
