Trump pardons give Jan 6 defendants nearly everything they wanted

Until Monday, even some members of Donald Trump’s team did not seem to believe that he would release everyone arrested after the riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“If you committed violence that day, obviously you should not be pardoned,” Vice President JD Vance said a little over a week ago.

Days later, testifying before Congress, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, agreed with a Democratic senator who asked her to condemn that day’s violence.

“I don’t agree with violence against any police officer,” she said, adding that she was prepared to individually review each of the more than 1,500 cases linked to the riots.

Trump, however, took a much more radical approach to these matters on his first day in office.

He issued a handful of commutations and a blanket pardon that effectively freed all the rioters and erased the work of the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history.

His decree Monday gave the rioters and their supporters almost everything they demanded, except for the monetary compensation from the government that some prisoner groups have demanded.

“These people have been destroyed,” Trump said after signing the order. “What they did to these people is outrageous. There has rarely been anything like this in the history of our country.”

There were scenes of celebration outside the Washington DC prison, where a number of those arrested following the riots were held, as well as on social media accounts run by the defendants and their supporters .

The mother of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio who was released on Tuesdayhas been posting regular updates about her son.

“Our president gave life back to my son and all J6ers!” Zuny Tarrio wrote after learning he would be released from his 22-year sentence. “They can live again! Breathe the fresh air again! Feel the sun again!”

One of the people released from the Washington DC prison on Tuesday was Rachel Powell of Pennsylvania, who was sentenced to more than four years in prison after smashing a Capitol window with an ice ax.

Speaking outside the prison, she told the BBC she would now be home in time for her son’s birthday and praised Trump for keeping his promise. “He is a greater blessing to me than I could ever imagine,” she said.

Some observers, including political experts and lawyers representing the rioters, were surprised by the scope of the president’s order.

“The general consensus was that we would see a differentiation between those who committed violent acts and those who did not,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit group that has opposed to graces.

“Donald Trump ran for office on law and order, so it is shocking and upsetting to see him take action to pardon violent criminals,” she said.

Fourteen people convicted of some of the most serious crimes have had their sentences commuted – meaning their offenses will remain on the record, but they will still be released from prison.

The Justice Department, in its latest update, said about 1,583 people had been arrested or convicted of crimes related to the riots.

More than 600 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police, including about 175 accused of using a weapon or seriously injuring a police officer.

Most of those convicted have served their sentences or even received no prison time, but about 250 people still in prison have begun to be released.

And it appears any further investigation — the FBI was still searching for at least 13 suspects and fugitives — will be halted.

Underscoring the finality and sweeping nature of his decision, Trump named Ed Martin as acting US attorney for Washington DC – the prosecutorial role that has been primarily responsible for prosecuting riot cases.

Martin held a pro-Trump rally the day before the riot and has been a vocal critic of the entire investigation.

On the campaign trail, Trump made various statements about the rioters, sometimes promising blanket pardons but sometimes indicating he might be inclined to keep some of them behind bars.

Supporters of the rioters cheered his blanket pardon Monday and have long described the sentences handed out to those they call “J6 hostages” and “political prisoners” as politically motivated and harsh.

Norm Pattis, a lawyer who defended some of the prisoners, told BBC Newshour that “the idea that this event threatens the republic is overblown,” adding that Confederate rebels were pardoned after the Civil War.

“If we could come together as a country after such a violent act, and after people openly took up arms and killed each other… why were we still prosecuting people for criminal trespass four years later, after a riot of an afternoon? he said.

Polls suggest, however, that a blanket pardon, including for violent convicts, is unpopular. A recent Associated Press investigation reported that only two in ten Americans approve of pardoning most of those involved.

Winston Pingeon, a Capitol Police officer who was beaten and pepper-sprayed that day, told Newshour the pardons were a “slap in the face.”

“It is truly an unprecedented thing to know that these violent criminals who were convicted by a jury of their peers for crimes that were widely publicized for the entire country and the world to see are going to be released.” , he said.

In his executive order, Trump explained why he chose to commute the 14 convicted prisoners rather than offer them full pardons. The list includes members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militias. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes was on the list and was released early Tuesday, his lawyer said.

Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer, led the Oath Keepers to Washington days before a riot. The group hid weapons in a hotel room across the Potomac River in Virginia, according to trial evidence. Rhodes did not enter the Capitol but directed its members from the outside and was sentenced in 2023 to 18 years in prison.

Rhodes’ lawyer, James Lee Bright, told the BBC that even people familiar with the cases were surprised by the scale of the pardon and the speed of the prisoner releases.

“Despite our relationships with people close to the president, they were extremely discreet” before the executive order, Bright said.

Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, received a full pardon, even though five other members of his group were on the commutation list. Tarrio was not in the crowd that day, having been banished from the city. Instead, he communicated with other Proud Boys from a hotel in nearby Baltimore.

After Rhodes’ arrest, the Oath Keepers mostly ceased activities, while the Proud Boys focused on local protests, particularly against transgender activists and slide story times. The latter group has also been plagued by infighting between established members and splinter groups pushing explicitly white nationalist ideas.

Wendy Via, CEO and co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the recently released militiamen may attempt to continue their activities, bringing back into the spotlight far-right groups that have largely dissipated.

On Monday, dozens of Proud Boys were seen marching around Washington to celebrate the inauguration.

“Do the Proud Boys go back to trying to centralize the organization, like they did in 2021? That’s going to be a big question,” Ms. Via said.

“The consequences of these pardons are that Trump has sent the message that violence is a viable tool for change, provided it is on his side,” she added.

With additional reporting from Regan Morris and Emma Vardy