WASHINGTON – Hundreds of US President Donald Trump’s supporters who had been serving prison sentences for participating in the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol were freed on Jan 21, after he pardoned more than 1,500 people, including some who assaulted police officers.
The US Federal Bureau of Prisons said 211 people had been released from federal facilities following Mr Trump’s order.
Mr Trump’s sweeping pardon – which went further than his allies had signalled they expected – drew condemnation from the police who battled the mob, their families and lawmakers, including some of the US President’s fellow Republicans.
A majority of Americans disapproved of Mr Trump’s decision, a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Jan 21 found.
The decision was also criticised by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the largest police union in the US that had endorsed Mr Trump in the 2024 election. The FOP and the International Association of Chiefs of Police said in a joint statement they were “deeply discouraged” by the pardons.
Among those released was Mr Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, who had been serving an 18-year sentence after being found guilty of plotting to use force to prevent Congress from certifying Mr Trump’s 2020 defeat to Mr Joe Biden.
“It’s redemption, but also vindication,” Mr Rhodes told reporters outside the Washington, DC, jail, where a crowd of Trump supporters waited for more prisoners to be released.
Mr Rhodes, who did not enter the Capitol on Jan 6, said he did not have any regrets and still believed Mr Trump’s false claims that he lost that election due to fraud. Mr Rhodes had been released earlier in the day from a separate facility in Cumberland, Maryland, after Mr Trump commuted his sentence.
Mr Trump ordered clemency for everyone charged in the assault, when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to overturn his election defeat. Some 140 police officers were injured in the rampage, which sent lawmakers running for their lives.
‘The man who killed my brother’
Mr Craig Sicknick, whose brother, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was assaulted during the riot and died of multiple strokes the next day, called Mr Trump “pure evil” on Jan 21.
“The man who killed my brother is now president,” he told Reuters.
“My brother died in vain. Everything he did to try to protect the country, to protect the Capitol – why did he bother?” Mr Sicknick said. “What Trump did is despicable, and it proves that the United States no longer has anything that resembles a justice system.”
Mr Trump’s order extended from the people who committed only misdemeanors such as trespassing all the way to those who served as ringleaders for the assault.
Nearly 60 per cent of respondents in the two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted starting immediately after Mr Trump took office on Jan 20, said he should not pardon all of the Capitol defendants.
One of Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans, Senator Thom Tillis, said sparing rioters who assaulted police sent a wrong message.
“I saw an image today in my news clippings of the people who were crushing that police officer. None of them should get a pardon,” Mr Tillis told Reuters in a hallway interview. “You make this place less safe if you send the signal that police officers could potentially be assaulted and there is no consequence.”
Others welcomed Mr Trump’s decision. Republican Representative Lauren Boebert said she would offer tours of the Capitol to defendants after they are released.
Among those released earlier in the day was Mr Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group.
Mr Tarrio was not present at the Capitol on Jan 6, but was sentenced to 22 years, longer than for any other defendant, after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the attack.
Campaign promise
Mr Trump’s pardons went further than many of his allies had signalled. Both US Vice-President J.D. Vance and Mr Trump’s attorney-general choice Pam Bondi had previously said they believed people who committed violence would not be pardoned.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended the pardons, claiming without evidence that many of the convictions were politically motivated.
“President Trump campaigned on this promise,” she said on Fox News. “It should come as no surprise that he delivered on it on Day One.”
More than 1,000 defendants pleaded guilty rather than go to trial, including 327 who pleaded guilty to felonies, according to US Justice Department statistics.
One protester, Ashli Babbitt, was shot dead by the police during the Jan 6 riot as she tried to force her way into the House of Representatives chamber. Four officers who responded that day later died by suicide.
Mr Trump’s were not the only pardons on Jan 20: Outgoing US president Joe Biden in his final hours in office pre-emptively pardoned five members of his own family, a move that followed his pardon in 2024 of son Hunter Biden, who had been charged with tax fraud and an illegal firearms purchase.
Republican Senator Susan Collins said both presidents had acted wrongly, calling it a “terrible day for our Justice Department”. Mr Tillis also criticised Mr Biden’s pardons.
Mr Trump’s action shutters the largest investigation in US Justice Department history, including more than 300 cases that had still been pending. Prosecutors filed dozens of motions to dismiss cases on the morning of Jan 21, federal court records showed.
Trial comes to abrupt end
In Washington, the trial of Mr Kenneth Fuller and his son Caleb, who faced felony charges of obstructing the police during a civil disorder, came to an abrupt end on Jan 21.
Federal judges in Washington – including some Trump appointees – have handled Capitol riot cases for years and expressed alarm at the events of the day. At a November hearing, Trump-nominated US District Judge Carl Nichols said a blanket Jan 6 pardon would be “beyond frustrating or disappointing”, according to a court transcript.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who was presiding over the Fullers’ trial, ordered it dismissed without discussion, noting that her ruling satisfied what she called Mr Trump’s edict.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Mr Caleb Fuller, 22, said that he and his parents popped a bottle of champagne in their hotel room after hearing Mr Trump’s decision on the night of Jan 20.
Mr Fuller said he did not witness any violence during the riot.
“I didn’t see anyone get hurt,” he said. “So I feel like everyone that was around me is deserving of a pardon.” REUTERS
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