More Than 1,500 US Capitol Riot Defendants Pardoned by Trump (3)

Donald Trump pardoned almost all of the people convicted for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and ordered charges dropped in any pending cases, fulfilling a controversial campaign promise just hours after he returned to the White House.

Trump announced the mass clemency for more than 1,500 people to reporters on Monday evening and the official proclamation was released soon after. The pardons covered convictions that ranged from misdemeanor trespassing to assaulting police with weapons and immediately became a political lightning rod.

At the White House on Tuesday, Trump swatted away questions about freeing individuals who had been convicted of injuring law enforcement officers, saying that the individuals had already served lengthy sentences and that “the American public is tired of it.” Trump also argued that he favored leniency because, he claimed without evidence, “murderers don’t even go to jail in this country.”

The Jan. 6 attack spurred the largest federal criminal investigation in US history. Approximately 1,583 people had been federally charged with participating in the attack as of the fourth anniversary earlier this month, according to the government. More than 1,000 defendants pleaded guilty and more than 200 were convicted at trial.

There were more than 300 cases pending that hadn’t reached a verdict or plea deal. Trump ordered the US Justice Department to dismiss all pending indictments.

In the hours that followed, prosecutors filed a flurry of motions in the Washington federal court seeking to drop cases that hadn’t gone to trial or been resolved with a guilty plea. Trump hasn’t announced a nominee to permanently fill the city’s Senate-confirmed US attorney position, but the overnight filings were signed by Acting US Attorney Ed Martin. Martin, a conservative activist, served on the board of Patriot Freedom Project, a group that advocated for Jan. 6 defendants.

Read more: How US Presidents Wield Their Mighty Power to Pardon

The clemency action “ends 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 proclamation stated.

Federal Charges

Trump also signed commutations cutting short the prison sentences of 14 people associated with the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys extremist groups. They were the only defendants to not receive full pardons. That group included Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, while former Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was part of the larger cohort that received a pardon.

Trump on Tuesday said he could envision a place for them in the political conversation.

“They’ve been given a pardon, and I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive,” he said.

Daniel Hodges, a police officer who was assaulted as he protected the Capitol on Jan. 6 and testified about the experience before Congress, posted on social media in response to the pardon news: “Just worked about 14 hours making sure Trump’s inauguration was secure and peaceful, got home, read this. Thanks America.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement calling it “an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution.”

Marina Medvin, a defense attorney for multiple Jan. 6 defendants, wrote in a message to Bloomberg News that she had grown to “care deeply” for her clients and that “the pardons will help them to move on from that day.”

President Donald Trump speaks as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20.

Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 election loss became a core part of his post-presidency political identity. He made the prospect of mass clemency for the people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack — which temporarily stopped Congress from certifying former President Joe Biden’s win — a prominent part of his re-election campaign.

Mass Clemency

Before Monday’s action, Trump’s critics and former federal prosecutors had denounced the prospect of sweeping pardons, warning it would normalize political violence. More than 140 police officers were assaulted and rioters caused millions of dollars in damage to the Capitol building, according to the US attorney’s office in Washington.

Read More: Trump Weighs Jan. 6 Clemency With Congress Set to Ratify His Win

Sentences for the rioters have ranged from probation for people found guilty of misdemeanor crimes for illegally entering the Capitol to decades in prison for defendants convicted of violence or seditious conspiracy. Trials revealed that people brought guns, knives, chemical sprays, tasers and a variety of makeshift weapons to the Capitol.

Trump originally had said he’d sign six commutations at the White House, but the final number was slightly higher, according to the proclamation.

There is precedent for large-scale presidential clemency. In December, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who had been placed on home confinement during the pandemic. A few days before he left office, the White House announced that he commuted another 2,500 sentences for non-violent drug offenders.

The late President Jimmy Carter signed a proclamation in 1977 pardoning Americans who avoided the military draft during the Vietnam War, although there was an exception for crimes involving “force or violence.”

(Updated with additional Trump comments in paragraphs 3-4, 10-11.)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net;
Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Ben Bain, Steve Stroth

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