President Trump on Monday granted clemency to roughly 1,500 defendants who had been convicted of crimes on Jan. 6, 2021, following through on his longtime promise to absolve those who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol of wrongdoing.
The president’s action comes on his first day back in the White House and just hours after he was sworn in for a second term. Mr. Trump has repeatedly sought to downplay the events of Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters breached the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from reaffirming Joe Biden’s victory over him in the 2020 presidential election.
Mr. Trump extended clemency to those convicted of violent and serious crimes, including assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. He also ordered the attorney general to dismiss all pending indictments related to the Capitol riot, essentially eradicating the Biden Justice Department’s massive effort to hold accountable those who participated in the assault.
“These are the hostages, approximately 1,500 for a pardon, full pardon,” Mr. Trump said during remarks from the Oval Office. “This is a big one.”
The president said he hopes those who remain incarcerated will be released immediately. His clemency includes six commutations, he said, though the proclamation released by the White House lists the names of 14 people and reduces their sentences to time served.
“These people have been destroyed,” he said. “What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like it in the history of our country.”
Mr. Trump lambasted the judges overseeing cases stemming from the Jan. 6 attack and the prosecutors who brought charges as “brutal.”
More than 1,600 people were charged as a result of their alleged conduct on Jan. 6, and at least 1,100 have had their cases adjudicated and received sentences, according to the Justice Department. More than 700 defendants completed their sentences or did not receive sentences of incarceration.
More than 170 people were accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon, such as a fire extinguisher or bear spray, against police officers, prosecutors have said.
There are roughly 300 prosecutions that remain pending against defendants who have been charged, the Justice Department said earlier this month. Nearly 60% of those were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement or obstructing those officers during a civil disorder, which are felonies.
Many Jan. 6 defendants were charged with nonviolent misdemeanors, though some faced more serious offenses, like conspiring to use force to resist the transfer of power. But Mr. Trump’s action appears to be sweeping — among those expected to receive clemency is Enrique Tarrio, the former head of the far-right group the Proud Boys who was serving a 22-year sentence after he was convicted in May 2023 of charges including seditious conspiracy, his lawyer Nayid Hassan told CBS News. It’s unclear whether he will receive a pardon or have his sentence commuted.
