Exchange offers example of senators\u2019s willingness to publicly disagree with Trump while serving as staunch ally<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US senator Lindsey Graham has said officials who investigated Donald Trump<\/a> supporters\u2019 deadly attack on the US Capitol in 2021 should not be imprisoned \u2013 despite what his fellow Republican has argued in advance of his second presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During an interview Sunday on NBC\u2019s Meet the Press, show host Kristen Welker asked<\/a> Graham whether he agreed with Trump\u2019s assertion on the program seven days earlier that those involved in the investigation of the January 6 Capitol attack \u201cshould go to jail\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo,\u201d said Graham, South Carolina\u2019s senior senator as well as a ranking member of the chamber\u2019s judiciary and budget committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Welker directed the question at Graham during a segment meant to elicit quick answers, which she acknowledged by replying: \u201cOK \u2013 that was very clear and concise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The exchange offered an example of Graham\u2019s occasional willingness to publicly disagree with Trump while still generally serving as a staunch ally \u2013 and it came amid a broader political dialogue about who should receive pardons in connection with an attack on Congress that was linked to multiple deaths, including the suicides of traumatized law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has promised to begin his second presidency in January 2025 by issuing pardons to those who carried out the attack, though there may be some exceptions. He spoke<\/a> to Welker on 8 December about how supporters of his were pressured into accepting guilty pleas in connection with the violent, desperate attempt to keep him in the White House after losing the presidency to Joe Biden in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having won the Oval Office back in November in his race against Vice-President Kamala Harris, Trump denied he would direct his second administration to arrest elected officials who investigated the Capitol attack, leading to federal criminal charges against him that have been dismissed. Nonetheless, he made it a point to tell Welker: \u201cHonestly, they should go to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bernie Sanders, the liberal US senator, made a separate appearance on Sunday on Meet the Press and said Biden in turn should \u201cvery seriously consider\u201d issuing pre-emptive pardons<\/a> to those who investigated the Capitol attack, as others have suggested. Sanders didn\u2019t provide any names, but a week earlier Trump mentioned the names of Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, once the chairperson and vice-chairperson respectively of the US House committee convened for that investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou do not arrest elected officials \u2026 who undertake an investigation,\u201d Sanders said, adding that doing so \u201cis what authoritarianism [and] dictatorship is all about\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanders also said: \u201cYou just heard Lindsey Graham make that statement \u2013 I think that idea of Trump is not going to very far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 1,250 people have pleaded guilty or otherwise been convicted in the January 6 attack. And at least 645 people have been sentenced to serve some time in prison, ranging from a few days to 22 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During his 8 December interview with Welker, Trump blamed those convictions on \u201ca very corrupt system\u201d that he would hold in check with pardons, despite criticizing Biden\u2019s recent pardon of his son, Hunter, on convictions of lying on gun ownership application forms as well as tax evasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know the system,\u201d said Trump, himself convicted in May in New York state court on charges of criminally falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n