Thread by @TimInHonolulu

1. I've been pondering the disclosure that several members of Congress requested #pardons for their participation in the attempted coup. Specifically I've wondered where the Committee got the evidence. There were reports that #45 was not operating through the DOJ Pardon Attorney.

2. I presumed at the time of those reports it was because the #45 White House was engaged in #PardonsForSale and I expect that they would try to control the evidence being generated by their criminal conspiracy. But somehow the Committee has obtained evidence of Congressional

3. pardon requests. Perhaps the team, apparently led by #JaredKushner, who were selling pardons wanted to distance themselves from coup plotters. So rather than handling the requests in-house they simply referred them to Office of the Pardon Attorney at DOJ. That office has a

4. process for handing pardons that would generate documents that under federal law would have to be preserved. Could that be the source of the Committee's proof? And if the process even remotely followed the process that is currently being applied, the application makes the

5. petitioner disclose the crimes they committed. The @JoeBiden DOJ has returned to the practice under @BarackObama DOJ that requires five years after the completion of sentence to be able to apply for a pardon. I recall that under Obama it was seven years. There appears no

6. form or process to obtain a preemptive pardon pre-conviction. But if the Congressional petitioners were put in some cue to clear them from the Kushner pardon-sale conspiracy, they may have been required to articulate the crime that they believe they committed. If that is so,

7. then the @January6thCmte may have possession of what amounts to a treasure-trove of of @HouseGOP & @SenateGOP confessions. All of them admissible in court as admissions of a criminal defendant made under penalty of law.

Just in time for the mid-terms. 😎