WATCH: Lindsey Graham Says Jan 6 Committee Members Should Not Be Prosecuted

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) defended members of the highly controversial House January 6 Committee, stating that he does not believe they should be prosecuted during an appearance on Meet The Press.

Graham was first asked about his willingness to support Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense. Graham has previously provided vague statements when asked about Hegseth’s nomination, stating that unverified allegations are “serious.”

The senator also reportedly called the president-elect multiple times and urged him to ditch Hegseth, sources close to the Trump transition team told The Federalist.

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After a weeks-long saga and significant backlash from the Trump base, Graham appeared more open to supporting Hegseth while speaking with Meet The Press host Kirsten Welker. “Yeah, I’m in a good place with Pete unless something I don’t know about comes out. These allegations are disturbing, but they’re anonymous. I asked him point blank, ‘were you drunk in a bar and got up and said, let’s kill all the Muslims?’ He said ‘no,'” Graham said, adding that the sexual assault allegation was found to be without merit upon investigation.

“But about mismanagement of money, about, you know, having a drinking problem and saying inappropriate things. All of these are anonymous allegations. He’s given me his side of the story. It makes sense to me. I believe him. Unless somebody’s willing to come forward, I think he’s going to get through,” he continued, comparing the unsubstantiated allegations to those levied against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings.

Welker concluded the segment with a “lightening round” in which she asked the senator a number of questions. “President-elect Trump told me he thinks the members of the January 6th committee should go to jail. Do you agree with that statement?” the NBC host asked.

“No,” Graham replied without hesitation.

The January 6 Committee has faced numerous allegations of impropriety since its foundation.

The committee defied decades of congressional precedent when then House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) refused to allow then House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to appoint Republican members. Congressional committees, with the exception of the January 6 committee, always allow the opposition party to select its own members.

Instead, Pelosi appointed Liz Cheney, an anti-Trump carpet bagger who lost by a historic margin in her 2022 primary race against current U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY), and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who resigned from Congress before suffering certain defeat, as the “Republican” members. This turned the “committee” into a one-sided star chamber that presented cherry-picked videos and witness statements as “evidence” that Trump “incited an insurrection,” ignoring the fact that Trump explicitly told supporters to remain peaceful

The committee then hired a Hollywood producer to touch up cherrypicked footage used by the committee to advance the false “insurrection” narrative during primetime hearings. The panel also heard unverified testimony from a number of anti-Trump partisans, including former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who told a bizarre story about Trump grabbing the steering wheel from Secret Service agents when the January 6 protests were unfolding. Her claims have been disputed by Secret Service personnel and House Republicans are investigating her for perjury.

In addition, U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) has confirmed that all deposition tapes from committee interviews have been destroyed.

“Well, I think what it says is that they had a predetermined narrative. They wanted evidence that fit within the narrative that they wanted to present to the American people. And if there was something outside of that, we’ve seen that there’s two things that they did. One is either they just ignored that information, like the depositions that were sent to the White House and to DHS, or they had people change their testimonies,” Loudermilk said of the committee’s final report.

Trump has called for committee members — including former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — to face criminal prosecution for their work on the committee.

“And Cheney was behind it, and so was Benny Thompson and everybody on that committee. We’re going to… For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail,” the president-elect said in his own interview with Meet The Press last week.

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