In one of his first official acts, President Donald J. Trump on Monday granted a sweeping pardon to all approximately 1,600 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, leaving most of the people dead. granted amnesty. The defendants were indicted and 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia group received reduced sentences, most of them convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Trump's move was an unusual reversal for rioters accused of low-level, nonviolent crimes and for assaulting police officers.
And it effectively erased years of efforts by federal investigators to hold accountable the mob's assault on the peaceful transfer of presidential power following Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election. As part of his clemency order, Trump also directed the Justice Department to dismiss “all pending indictments” remaining against people who were indicted on Jan. 6.
Trump, sitting in the Oval Office, said he hoped many of the defendants would be released as early as tonight.
“They have been in prison for a long time already,” he said. “These people have been destroyed.”
The “total, complete and unconditional” pardons issued by Trump are for about 1,000 defendants charged with misdemeanors such as disorderly conduct, entering restricted grounds at the Capitol, and trespassing. He wrote that it would be life-threatening. Many of these rioters only serve days, weeks, or months in prison, if at all.
The pardon will also give a clean slate to violent criminals who are serving sentences, in some cases more than 10 years, for chasing down police with baseball bats, two-by-fours and bear spray on Jan. 6.
Additionally, Trump pardoned former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy and was serving a 22-year prison sentence. This crime requires prosecutors to prove that the defendant used violence against a gang. government.
Tarrio's attorney said he has been released from a federal prison in Louisiana and is scheduled to return to his hometown of Miami by Tuesday afternoon.
Trump's actions immediately sparked a storm of criticism, particularly from some of the investigators working on the January 6 incident.
Alexis Loeb, a former federal prosecutor who personally oversaw many riot cases, said, “This pardon means that even if you commit a violent act, as long as you commit the violent act on behalf of someone in political power. “This suggests that we may be able to avoid that outcome.” “They undermine and undermine the sacrifices of all the police officers who put themselves at risk to protect our democracy on January 6th.”
In a separate move, Trump commuted the sentences of five other Proud Boys convicted in Tarrio's case. He also commuted the sentences of Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers paramilitary group, and eight of his henchmen.
The reduced sentences erased more than 100 years in prison for 14 defendants, nearly all of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
The two pardons were cheered by several defendants on January 6th, their families, and activists working on their behalf who urged Trump to issue the broadest interpretation possible. I was greeted with excitement. Many of the January 6th rioters have been on a roll ever since Trump won the November election, believing that Trump will come to their rescue and pardon everyone involved in the attack. I was sure.
In fact, last week Tarrio's family in Miami began planning a “cocktail event” to celebrate his pardon. Other defendants rented cars in advance to meet outside the prison or awaited Trump's decision at so-called pardon watch parties, some wearing court-ordered ankle monitors.
Pardons and commutations contributed not only to their impact on the lives of those who received them, but also to Mr. Trump's mission to rewrite history on January 6th. Trump has repeatedly tried to do so during his presidential campaign and even after his election victory. Downplaying the violent nature of the Capitol attack and falsely reframing it as a “day of love.”
Mr. Trump's actions were essentially his boldest yet to recast his supporters, and himself, as victims rather than perpetrators of the events of January 6th. Even though the democratic process is on track, Mr. Trump has called his presidency to bear on the mob's claims that they were not properly prosecuted criminal defendants, but rather political prisoners who were unfairly persecuted. granted unlimited authority.
As a legal matter, the pardon and commutation effectively end the largest single criminal investigation conducted by the Justice Department in its 155-year history. They expunged all charges already filed and sentences already handed down, and at the same time blocked the news case from proceeding.
Starting virtually from the moment the Capitol was breached, investigators spent more than four years obtaining warrants for thousands of cell phones and Google accounts, and tens of thousands of hours of police body camera and surveillance. They scrolled through the camera footage and found hundreds of thousands of pieces of information. Tips from the public.
Their efforts resulted in approximately 1,600 people being charged in federal district court in Washington, just blocks from the Capitol. More than 600 of these defendants were charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement officers, and many were found in possession of weapons such as hockey sticks, firecrackers, crutches, and broken wooden table legs.
Of the approximately 1,100 people convicted of crimes, more than half have been sentenced to at least a period of imprisonment. Tarrio, a former Proud Boys leader, received the longest sentence of all defendants, 22 years. He was followed by David Dempsey, a Proud Boys member from California who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after attacking police with weapons including hands, feet, flagpoles and pepper spray. .
Both of these sentences will now be reversed, as will other sentences against far-right leaders such as Oath Keepers founder Rose, who was serving an 18-year sentence at the time the commuted sentence was handed down. It turns out.
The pardons and commutations do not address the separate but related issue of what Trump plans to do with the Justice Department's continuing investigation on January 6th.
Two weeks ago, department officials said prosecutors were still considering whether to charge as many as 200 more people, including about 60 who allegedly assaulted or obstructed police officers during the riot. . And as of Friday, court proceedings in Washington for the January 6 defendants were continuing almost normally.
Trump appears to have decided relatively recently to grant a broad pardon after discussions among his advisers. In recent months, he has made various statements to various people about his future plans, sometimes suggesting he would grant pardons to violent criminals, and other times granting pardons to people who committed no violent acts and were only charged with misdemeanors. He sometimes suggested that he would hold on to the matter.
A few weeks ago, Vice President J.D. Vance said on Fox News that rioters who attacked police likely would not receive a pardon.
“If you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn't be forgiven,” Vance said, adding, “There's a bit of a gray area there.”
Vance's comments sparked immediate anger among many in the mob.
“The J6 defendants are very angry at J.D. Vance,” Philip Anderson, the defendant accused of participating in the violent scrum in the tunnels outside the Capitol, wrote on social media. “All J6 defendants need to be saved.”
Vance quickly tried to retract his statement.
“I assure you, we care about those who are unjustly imprisoned,” he wrote to X. “Yes, that includes those who have been provoked, and that includes those who have been given garbage trials.”
David C. Adams and glen thrush Contributed to the report.
