Trump pardons almost all involved in Jan. 6 riot, commutes remaining 14 sentences
Police and Trump supporters clash near the U.S. Capitol on January 06, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump granted a blanket pardon Monday evening to virtually all Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot defendants and commuted the sentences of the remaining 14 - a sweeping move that gives some form of clemency to all those charged or convicted in the riot.
In one of the earliest acts of his second term, Trump signed a proclamation issuing a “complete and unconditional pardon” to all but 14 people convicted for any offenses related to the attack at the Capitol as his first term drew to a close. He cut short the sentences for the other 14 - nine members of the Oath Keepers and five members of the Proud Boys.
That means everyone prosecuted by the Justice Department, from the plotters imprisoned for seditious conspiracy and felons convicted of assaulting police officers to those who merely trespassed on the restricted grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, will soon be released from incarceration, if they were still in federal custody.
Trump ordered his attorney general to make sure that those who are “currently held in prison are released immediately” and also to dismiss all pending indictments.
“We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said as he signed the order.
The blanket action for Jan. 6 defendants marked an extraordinary statement about one of the most divisive chapters of recent U.S. history. In recent days, Vice President JD Vance, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi and lawmakers including Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), have strongly condemned rioters who attacked police, who account for many of those spared the most time behind bars by Trump.
For many in Trump’s base, the trials and punishments of Jan. 6 defendants have become a potent symbol of overzealous prosecution by the Biden administration’s Justice Department - even as historians and elected officials not closely aligned with Trump warn that mass pardons would amount to an endorsement of election denialism and the use of violence for political gain.
“By pardoning and commuting the sentences of those who participated in the January 6 insurrection - including violent organizers convicted of seditious conspiracy - Trump has both legitimated the insurrection and signaled to supporters that there will be no price to pay for pro-Trump political violence,” Nicole Hemmer, a Vanderbilt University professor and the director of its Center for the American Presidency.
Taking such a defining act at the outset of his second term will only fuel concern “about the authoritarian tendencies of the incoming administration,” Hemmer said.
Trump’s move came hours after President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned members of his family, members of the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack and witnesses who testified to it from potential prosecutions by Trump’s administration. The dueling actions fed a split-screen reality facing Americans, even as polls show Americans oppose efforts to further test democracy’s limits.
Outside the D.C. jail as word of pardons broke, Jan. 6 defendants and their families jumped in excitement. Defendants locked inside called into the celebration, thanking supporters waiting in the cold.
“To all the haters out there, President Trump kept his word,” said Greg Purdy, 26, of New York, who faced a U.S. request for a five-year prison sentence next week after a jury found him guilty on six felony counts including two for assaulting police.
A pro-Trump protester carries the lectern of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi through the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2021. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)“They can’t do anything now. … This is true freedom,” added Brandon Fellows. He spoke outside after serving three years in jail for entering the Capitol through a broken window, smoking marijuana in a senator’s office, heckling officers, calling the mother of his probation officer and being found in criminal contempt of court by a Trump-appointed judge and former Justice Department official who said he “flagrantly lied” on the stand at trial.
Core parts of Trump’s base made clear they want everyone accused in the riot to be cleared, with Joey Mannarino, a podcast host with a large social media following, calling for the defendants to be honored as well.
“Not only should the J6ers be pardoned in a mass blanket pardon, they should be given Presidential Medals of Freedom for standing up when the country needed fighters the most,” Mannarino wrote on X this month. “Yes, the violent ones too.”
Trump had repeatedly promised the pardons before and after voters returned him to office in November. But even late that month, Trump told Time magazine he would take a “case-by-case” approach.
Trump commuted the sentences of 14 members of the right-wing Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups, most of whom received long prison terms for seditious conspiracy, including Oath Keepers’ leader Stewart Rhodes. Trump said he would still consider extending them pardons. Proud Boys former chairman Henry ‘Enrique’ Tarrio did receive a pardon, and his lawyer said he was being released Monday night.
“We have steadfastly maintained that the charges and the subsequent prosecution were politically motivated, and today, with President Trump’s act of clemency, that long-fought battle concludes,” said Nayib Hassan, whose client served less than three years of a 22-year term for leading his far-right group’s plotting to battle police and keep Trump in office after the 2020 election. Tarrio’s was the longest sentence handed down in the Capitol breach prosecutions
Earlier Monday, members of Proud Boys returned to march through the nation’s capital, sending what extremism researchers called a brazen message to other far-right groups.
“Whose streets? Our street,” the group’s members chanted, holding a banner that said, “Proud Boys did nothing wrong.”
“They are emboldened,” said Heidi Beirich, a longtime hate monitor who co-founded the nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “They’re back, and I think it means that their ranks are going to grow, and we’re going to see them involved in all kinds of pro-Trump and other white supremacist activity and their slate has been cleaned.”
Overall, more than 1,580 defendants have been charged and more than 1,270 convicted in the Capitol riot investigation, on charges ranging from misdemeanor parading to seditious conspiracy. More than 700 of 1,100 people sentenced so far have received no prison time or have completed their sentence, and they would receive limited immediate impact from a Trump pardon. But about 400 others remain incarcerated, serving sentences after admitting they committed the crimes they were charged with or being found guilty by a jury or judge.
About 15 people remain held at the D.C. jail. Some are pending trial or sentencing, others are waiting to be sent to prison after being sentenced, and some have been returned for resentencing or probation violations, officials said. Dozens of supporters waited late into the night in freezing temperatures expecting them to walk free any minute.
More than 140 police officers were injured in the Capitol attack, which grew out of a rally at which Trump repeated his false claims that he had defeated Joe Biden and the election had been stolen from him. The breach of the Capitol forced the evacuation of lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence from a joint session of Congress and delayed the certification of the 2020 election results for hours.
Participants carried weapons including firearms, chemical sprays, stun guns, axes, baseball bats, a sword and a hockey stick. A female rioter was shot and killed by police inside the Capitol, and one officer succumbed to two strokes that were partly attributed to the stress of the attack. Three people died as a result of medical emergencies suffered during the riot. Four police officers later died by suicide.
About 387 rioters were charged with felony assault on police officers or others. At least 289 others were charged with less-violent or nonviolent felonies including federal rioting, property destruction, theft, obstruction or firearms violations.
More than 800 people, just over half of the total number of defendants, faced only misdemeanor counts such as trespassing or disorderly conduct.
Trump has embraced the cause of those jailed or charged, meeting with some relatives of the convicted and lending his voice to a recording of the “J6 Prison Choir” singing “Justice for All,” which he played to start the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign.
But several of his top administration officials distanced themselves from his ultimate action, which police leaders and advocates condemned. Vance drew backlash from activists this month for seeming to rule out pardons for those who attacked police or others. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned,’ Vance said on Fox News.
Criticism from the right prompted Vance to defend himself on X and say that Trump expects to “look at each case.”
“I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up,” Vance wrote. “Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial.”
Two-thirds of Americans opposed pardons for people convicted of crimes in the riot, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted in early December, although strong majorities of Republicans (60 percent) and Trump voters (69 percent) approved of them.
A pardon is not an expungement of a conviction. The charges remain on the books, but the person’s sentence is commuted, and restrictions on voting, gun ownership and other privileges are eliminated. Getting pardoned can help a person restore a security clearance or remove a basis for deportation or for a bank to refuse financing.
The heads of the FBI and Capitol Police, police officers injured on Jan. 6, and many lawmakers who were in the Capitol that day have voiced strong opposition to pardoning those who participated in the riot, especially those who committed violence.
In a statement Monday, the brother of Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was pepper sprayed in the riot and died of two strokes partly attributed to the attack, condemned a blanket pardon and signed a petition organized by the liberal group MoveOn.
“Donald Trump and his loyalists not only celebrate the deadly mob that killed my brother - they are determined to pardon those responsible,” Craig Sicknick said. “It is a betrayal to not only the families and loved ones of those who were injured and killed, but all Americans.”
Michael Fanone, the former D.C. police officer who was dragged into the mob, beaten unconscious and threatened with being killed with his own gun during the riot, received a pardon Monday from Biden.
“I think it’s f—ed-up that I live in a country where a president feels that its necessary to preemptively pardon a police officer for testifying truthfully for what they experienced on Jan. 6, to protect them from another president who incited Jan. 6 and is about to take office,” Fanone said.
Asked about the possibility of pardons at her confirmation hearing for attorney general on Wednesday, Bondi said, “The pardons, of course, fall under the president.”
“But if asked to look at those cases, I will look at each case and advise on a case-by-case basis, just as I did my entire career as a prosecutor,” Bondi said. “I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer.”
In town for inauguration events, Trump supporters in interviews often agreed that the Capitol attack was overblown and not worth dwelling on. But many said they did not think a pardon would be appropriate for the most serious cases.
“Anybody who did anything violent, I don’t care if they’re a Republican or a Democrat,” said Armin Bauman, 63, from Maryland, who attended Trump’s Washington rally. “They have to be prosecuted by the law.”
Ellie Silverman, Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Hannah Allam, Marissa Lang and Emily Davies contributed to this report.
