A federal judge denied the Justice Department’s attempt to apply President Trump’s blanket pardon for members of the Jan. 6 mob at the Capitol to one defendant’s conviction for possessing illegal guns at his Kentucky home. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, became the first judge to reject outright the Justice Department’s recently adopted position about the scope of Trump’s clemency, Politico reports. Reversing its initial stance iafter Trump’s inauguration, the department is now arguing that Trump’s pardon extends to crimes with no connection to the attack on the Capitol other than the fact that law enforcement agents uncovered evidence of them during the Jan. 6 investigation.
Friedrich said DOJ’s position “contradicts” the “clear and unambiguous” language of Trump's Day 1 executive order granting pardons to 1,500 people convicted of participating in the riot. Friedrich noted that Trump’s order said it applied to “individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” The judge found illogical the contention that the order extended to other crimes authorities came across as they conducted that investigation. “To interpret the Presidential Pardon to apply to any type of offense — no matter when or where that offense was committed — simply because evidence of that offense was uncovered incident to a January 6-related search warrant would ‘defy rationality,’” Friedrich wrote. Trump could clarify or expand his Jan. 6 pardon directive, but he has not done so, perhaps because that could draw more attention to the subject and to other crimes committed by some involved in the Capitol riot.
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