WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that members of Congress who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection should be imprisoned.
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said of elected officials who led the investigation, speaking in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
One of those investigators, former Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), is slated to be sworn in Monday as California’s junior U.S. senator. Schiff served on the Jan. 6 committee and led the first impeachment trial of Trump.
Trump said Sunday he would not direct his administration to pursue such prosecutions and would leave the decision up to Pam Bondi, his pick for attorney general.
He also said he would “most likely” pardon his supporters who were convicted in the riot.
President Biden is considering whether to issue preemptive pardons to protect potential targets of revenge prosecution, including Schiff.
In a Sunday post on X accompanied by a clip of the interview, Schiff wrote: “Prosecuting the truth-tellers. Pardoning perpetrators of political violence. That’s not what democracies do. That’s what dictators do.”
Schiff won the election to replace outgoing Sen. Laphonza Butler, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to temporarily fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein after Feinstein’s death in September 2023.
He gained national prominence during Trump’s first term, leading multiple investigations into Trump and his allies.
In a letter to Newsom on Sunday announcing his formal resignation from the House, Schiff wrote that it was his honor to represent the people of California’s 30th Congressional District for the last 24 years.
“I look forward to representing all of the people of California, and doing my utmost to make sure that our state continues to provide opportunity, creativity, innovation, and a wonderful quality of life for generations to come,” he wrote.
Times staff writer Kevin Rector and the Associated Press contributed to this report.