Marjorie Taylor Greene's Pardon Request an 'Admission of Guilt'—Kirschner

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said this week that Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's alleged request for a pardon from then-President Donald Trump is an "admission of guilt."

The House of Representatives' Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots named Greene among a number of Republican lawmakers who allegedly sought pardons last year.

Greene, who represents Georgia's 14th congressional district, denied she had requested a pardon and called the claim "gossip and lies" in a tweet about the hearing on Thursday.

Kirschner, a legal analyst with NBC News and MSNBC, also took to Twitter on Thursday and suggested Greene's reported request for a pardon could bolster the case to prevent her from running for re-election in November.

"Seems Marjorie Taylor Greene's request for a pardon for her role in the insurrection - being an admission of guilt - should help in the litigation to disqualify her from holding office," Kirschner wrote.

He was responding to a tweet from John Bonifaz of the organization Free Speech For People, who is helping to represent five of Greene's constituents who are challenging her eligibility to run for reelection to Congress.

An administrative law judge in Georgia found against the constituents in May but as Bonifaz explained on Thursday, an appeal is due to be heard before a judge of the Fulton County Superior Court on July 18.

The petitioners argued that Greene should be disqualified because she violated the U.S. Constitution due to her alleged role in the events of January 6, 2021. They are suing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who formally decided that Greene was eligible to run following the administrative law judge's findings.

At Thursday's hearing, the Select Committee showed recorded testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special assistant to then-President Trump, who said Greene had not personally contacted her about a pardon.

"I heard she had asked White House Counsel Office for a pardon," Hutchinson said.

Greene shared a clip of Hutchinson's remark on Twitter and wrote: "Saying 'I heard' means you don't know. Spreading gossip and lies is exactly what the January 6th Witch Hunt Committee is all about."

"You know who needs to be pardoned? Julian Assange and Edward @Snowden," Greene said in a subsequent tweet, referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former NSA analyst Edward Snowden, who provided thousands of classified documents to journalists in 2013. Snowden now lives in Russia.

Assange is currently facing extradition to the U.S. after U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel approved his transfer last Friday. U.S. authorities have charged Assange with 17 counts of espionage and one charge of computer misuse.

Newsweek has reached out to Marjorie Taylor Greene's office for comment.