Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows deny seeking pardons from Trump

After the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Rudy Giuliani, a longtime ally of the former President Donald Trump, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, deny allegations that they sought pardons from Trump.

In Tuesday's testimony before the House committee investigating the deadly attack, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Meadows, said both men had asked about pardons for themselves.

A spokesman for Meadows told NBC News that Meadows never planned to seek a pardon. In a statement by his lawyer, Robert Costello, Giuliani said, Not only did I never request a pardon. I told my client, President Trump, that if I was offered a pardon, I would turn it down. Since I had done nothing wrong, there was no need for a pardon. Onetime Trump attorney, one of the most prominent supporters of Trump's stolen election lies, put out a more confusing account on Twitter Wednesday, saying Hutchinson was a reckless liar who was never present when I asked for a pardon. I told the President I did not want or need one, he said. Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, testified before the House committee last month for nine hours. It is not known if he was asked about the pardons.

In a Jan. 6 hearing last week, it was revealed that another former Trump lawyer, John Eastman, said in an email to Giuliani after Jan. 6 : I decided to be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works. Meadows hasn't testified before the committee. The House voted to send him to the Justice Department in December for criminal contempt of Congress, but the DOJ has refused to act on the request.

The testimony of Hutchinson conflicted with Meadows' public claims that Trump was speaking metaphorically when he said during his speech at the Ellipse on January 6 that he planned to march to the Capitol. Hutchinson testified that Trump was determined to go to the Capitol, and was irate with Meadows for not helping make the trip happen.

Trump said in an interview with the Washington Post earlier this year that the Secret Service said I couldn't go. Hutchinson testified that Trump initially had language included about pardons for people involved with Jan. 6 in remarks he was due to deliver on January 7, but was convinced to remove it by the office of White House counsel Pat Cipollone. She said Meadows had been encouraging that language. Hutchinson said that Meadows did seek a pardon if Meadows had expressed interest in a pardon for himself.