James Tate Grant couldn’t admit to his father that he joined the first attack on police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, opening the floodgates for a mob aimed at blocking certification of the 2020 presidential election. Video captured him shoving a metal barricade into a row of police officers.
Harold Grant spent his career as a federal probation and parole officer and criminal justice instructor. He begged his son not to attend President Trump’s rally over what he falsely claimed was a stolen election.
James Grant was convicted of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon, rioting and other charges. He spent three years in prison, then knocked on doors for Trump this fall after his release. He still believes the 2020 election might have been stolen. He knows Trump has promised to pardon Jan. 6 defendants, which he wants more than anything, reports the Washington Post
His father, who said he’d never voted Republican for president until this fall, cast a ballot for Trump. He thinks the Justice Department’s prosecution of hundreds of defendants has been overzealous.
The president-elect has pledged to pardon many Jan. 6 defendants during his first hour in office on Jan. 20, wiping away their punishment and erasing much of the legal system’s effort to address an unprecedented assault on the seat of democracy.
Two-thirds of Americans oppose pardons for people convicted of crimes in the riot, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted in early December. Strong majorities of Republicans (60 percent) and Trump voters (69 percent) approve of them.
As of Monday, the fourth anniversary of the attack, about 1,580 people had been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot.
Misdemeanors
The Post identified 1,549 people from court records and classified them based on charges on which they were convicted or that are pending. Thirteen leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been sentenced on charges of seditious conspiracy.
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At least 379 people have been charged with assaulting police or journalists.
At least 287 people have been charged with less violent or nonviolent felonies. Most of them have been charged with federal rioting, but many also have faced property destruction, theft, obstruction or firearms counts.
More than half of those charged, and 60 percent of those convicted so far, faced only misdemeanor counts such as trespassing or disorderly conduct.
“I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished,” Trump told Time magazine.
Blanket pardons would send “a thundering message of permission” for the use of violence for political gain and election denialism at home and overseas, said Jacob Ware of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Four years later, rings of metal fencing and a powerful snowstorm conspired to keep the area around the Capitol virtually lifeless Monday morning, with the exception of a massive security presence as Congress meets to finalize the results of the 2024 election, Politico reports.
Secret Service, Capitol Police, Justice Department agencies and officers from cities across the U.S. jammed every corridor of the building, vastly outnumbering the handful of reporters and lawmakers who arrived at the Capitol early.
Vice President Kamala Harris made clear she will preside over a relatively uneventful count of electoral votes that will confirm Donald Trump’s victory.
Trump himself made only a passing reference to the certification on his Truth Social feed before posting a picture of the crowd at his rally four years ago, which later formed part of the violent Jan. 6 mob that stormed the building.