President Trump on pardoned nearly all the rioters charged in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, wiping away criminal accountability and going further than some of his allies in Congress had suggested, reports Roll Call.
The sweeping proclamation commuted the prison sentences of 14 people convicted on more serious charges.
He granted a “complete and unconditional pardon” to “all other individuals” convicted for their roles in the attack during the congressional process to count electoral votes.
The attorney general should ensure all Jan. 6 defendants “who are currently held in prison are released immediately,” the proclamation states, and dismiss “all pending indictments against individuals for their conduct” related to the events.
More than 1,500 people have faced charges for their roles in the attack on the Capitol, including more than 100 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or seriously injuring a police officer.
Vice President JD Vance told Fox News this month that people who “peacefully protested” but were treated like gang members should be pardoned “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL) noted that some Jan. 6 defendants walked “through an open door that the police opened” while there were also “violent protesters.” Defendants who battered the police and destroyed property need to be in prison, said Rutherford, a former sheriff in Florida.
Rutherford said, “I’m a 41-year police officer. You attack a police officer, I want your ass going to jail.”
Trump said his pardons end "a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation."
The targets for commutations Monday included Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers group who was convicted in 2022 of seditious conspiracy for attempting to disrupt the Electoral College count and multiple other felonies.
Also on the list was Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers. Meggs was similarly found guilty of seditious conspiracy and other charges.
Rhodes, along with other defendants, was convicted following an eight-week trial. Rhodes was later sentenced to an 18-year prison term. Meggs was sentenced to a 12-year term.
Trump commuted the sentences of several leaders of another group, the Proud Boys.
“These pardons suggest that if you commit acts of violence, as long as you do so on behalf of a politically powerful person you may be able to escape consequences,” said Alexis Loeb, a former federal prosecutor who personally supervised many riot cases, the New York Times reports. “They undermine — and are a blow to — the sacrifice of all the officers who put themselves in the face of harm to protect democracy on Jan. 6.”
Trump’s actions were his boldest moves yet in seeking to recast his supporters — and himself — as the victims, not the perpetrators, of Jan. 6. By granting clemency to the members of a mob that used physical violence to stop the democratic process, Trump gave the imprimatur of the presidency to the rioters’ claims that they were not properly prosecuted criminal defendants, but rather unfairly persecuted political prisoners.
The pardons and commutations unwound the largest single criminal inquiry the Justice Department has undertaken in its 155-year history. They wiped away all of the charges that had already been brought and the sentences already handed down while also stopping any new cases from moving forward.
Investigators spent more than four years obtaining warrants for thousands of cellphones and Google accounts, scrolling through tens of thousands of hours of police body-camera and surveillance camera footage, and running down hundreds of thousands of tips from ordinary citizens.
Their work resulted in charges being brought against almost 1,600 people. More than 600 of the defendants were accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers, many with weapons that included hockey sticks, firecrackers, crutches and broken wooden table legs.