President Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021, instantly laying waste to the Justice Department’s four-year drive to punish the first disruption of the transfer of power in American history. The sweeping grant of clemency includes “full, complete and unconditional” pardons for some of the most notorious participants in the attack, including hundreds convicted of assaulting police, carrying firearms, destroying property or otherwise contributing to the violent rampage. Trump also ordered his Justice Department to shut down hundreds of pending Jan. 6 prosecutions, including many for violent crimes.

Among those freed from jail with a stroke of Trump’s pen: Enrique Tarrio, the former national leader of the far-right Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a seditious conspiracy related to the attack; Guy Reffitt, who carried a firearm during a standoff with police that helped facilitate the mob’s approach to the Capitol; and Ryan Samsel, the first rioter to breach police lines who was facing a long list of assault charges. Trump’s move largely erases the prosecutions that have crammed Washington’s federal courthouse and featured prominently in national politics since Trump attempted to derail Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. But only the president, Trump’s allies noted, gets to decide who receives clemency, and Trump had other ideas.

“These people have been destroyed,” Trump said as he signed the pardons Monday night. “What they’ve done to these people has been outrageous.” Trump asked the Bureau of Prisons to facilitate the release of incarcerated defendants immediately. The Justice Department charged about 1,600 perpetrators for their role in the mob, including 600 accused of assaulting or impeding police during the chaos. About 1,100 of them pleaded guilty or were found guilty at trial. The other roughly 500 cases were still pending until Trump’s clemency.

Despite the pardon for Tarrio, Trump opted only to commute the sentence of others who were convicted of seditious conspiracy — including Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the anti-government Oath Keepers. The federal judge who sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison recently said the thought of him being released was “frightening.” Others whose sentences were commuted include Dominic Pezzola, a New York Proud Boy who led the crowd into the Capitol when he shattered a Senate-wing window and was serving a 10-year sentence; Ethan Nordean and Joe Biggs, who led hundreds of Proud Boys on a march from the Washington Monument to the Capitol, where they helped ignite breaches of numerous police lines; and some of Rhodes’ top Oath Keepers allies. Trump also directed his Justice Department to abruptly drop the 470 ongoing criminal cases against Jan. 6 defendants — including hundreds facing assault charges. The president told prosecutors to request that the cases be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning they could not be refiled.

Pronus wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 9:35 am Perhaps some sort of reviewing committee could be created which would present candidates to the President for consideration. Only those on the list would be eligible for pardon, taking politics and friends and family out of the mix (sortofalittlebit).

Pardons should be used only to right an obvious wrong. This current paradigm is telling our juries, judges, police, and prosecutors to go jump in a lake.

CDFingers wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 11:39 am We have yet to see the color of their shirts when they gather beneath the Mother Orange Tree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Orange_Tree

Yeah, the Mother Orange Tree is really a thing. The Orange Shirts will just look silly.

CDF

McConnell (R-Ky.) told Semafor "no one should excuse violence. And particularly violence against police officers."

highdesert wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 4:41 pm Some Republican US senators are deeply concerned over the January 6th pardons and commutations starting with the former Republican leader, Sen Mitch McConnell.

McConnell (R-Ky.) told Semafor "no one should excuse violence. And particularly violence against police officers."

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/21/republ ... -6-pardons

Sens Thom Till, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski among others also have concerns.

featureless wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:20 pm

highdesert wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 4:41 pm Some Republican US senators are deeply concerned over the January 6th pardons and commutations starting with the former Republican leader, Sen Mitch McConnell.

McConnell (R-Ky.) told Semafor "no one should excuse violence. And particularly violence against police officers."

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/21/republ ... -6-pardons

Sens Thom Till, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski among others also have concerns.

These fuckers supported him. What did they expect?

highdesert wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:42 pm

featureless wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:20 pm

highdesert wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 4:41 pm Some Republican US senators are deeply concerned over the January 6th pardons and commutations starting with the former Republican leader, Sen Mitch McConnell.

McConnell (R-Ky.) told Semafor "no one should excuse violence. And particularly violence against police officers."

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/21/republ ... -6-pardons

Sens Thom Till, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski among others also have concerns.

These fuckers supported him. What did they expect?

Not all supported him. Ones like Thune and Johnson blame it on Biden and his pardons of family members, but Trump said he was going to pardon J6 rioters early in his campaign. That was long before Biden pardoned Hunter and his family members plus Milley, Fauci and the J6 House Committee.

In the shadow of Trump's return to Washington, Democrats are convening various forums in January to hear from eight candidates who hope to revive the party's prospects.

It's a familiar place for liberals, who were exiled from power when the GOP won control of both the presidency and Congress in 2004 and in 2016. What's different this time, experts say, is Democrats must deal with a fractured media ecosystem, rising disinformation and an electoral realignment that calls for a more nuanced coalition.

Chief among the issues facing the party will be addressing an enthusiasm gap, particularly among younger voters and progressives, which saw the Democratic ticket draw roughly 6.2 million fewer votes compared to 2020.

The main contrasts between Martin and Wikler revolve around their respective records, proximity to donors and connections to DNC powerbrokers.

CDFingers wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 6:14 pm If they know they'd get pardoned, they'd do anything for the Big Orange.

Are we having fun yet?

CDF

One of the people who served jail time for taking part in the US Capitol riot four years ago has refused a pardon from President Donald Trump, saying: "We were wrong that day." Pamela Hemphill, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison, told the BBC that there should be no pardons for the riot on 6 January 2021. "Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation," she said.

"I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative." Hemphill, who was nicknamed the "Maga granny" by social media users - in reference to Trump's "make America great again" slogan - said she saw the Trump government as trying to "rewrite history and I don't want to be part of that". "We were wrong that day, we broke the law - there should be no pardons," she told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, while another roughly 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial decided by a judge or a jury, according to an Associated Press database. Only two defendants have been acquitted of all charges, and those were trials decided by a judge rather than a jury.

About 750 people have been sentenced, with almost two-thirds receiving some time behind bars. Prison sentences have ranged from a few days of intermittent confinement to 22 years in prison. The longest sentence was handed down to Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump, a Republican, to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Many rioters are already out of prison after completing their sentences, including some defendants who engaged in violence. Scott Fairlamb — a New Jersey man who punched a police officer during the riot and was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be sentenced for assaulting law enforcement — was released from Bureau of Prisons’ custody in June.

The justices ruled that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding, enacted in 2002 in response to the financial scandal that brought down Enron Corp., must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents. Only some of the people who violently attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fall into that category.