Trump Signs Pardons for 1,500 Capitol Rioters
AFP/APP
Washington: US President Donald Trump signed pardons on Monday for approximately 1,500 participants in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, where his supporters attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
“These are the hostages—approximately 1,500 people—for a pardon, full pardon,” Trump said at a signing ceremony shortly after arriving at the White House. “We hope they come out tonight, frankly. They’re expecting it,” he added.
More than 1,500 people were charged in connection with the attack on Congress by Trump supporters who sought to disrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to pardon those involved in the attack, referring to them as “hostages,” “patriots,” and “political prisoners.” Trump, whose first term ended under the shadow of the Capitol assault, has consistently downplayed the unprecedented violence of January 6, even describing it as a “day of love.”
The assault injured more than 140 police officers during hours-long clashes. Rioters wielded flagpoles, baseball bats, hockey sticks, and other improvised weapons, along with Tasers and bear spray.
The attack on the Capitol followed a fiery speech by Trump to tens of thousands of supporters near the White House, where he reiterated false claims of winning the 2020 election and urged the crowd to march on Congress.
Trump was later charged by special counsel Jack Smith with conspiring to overturn the election results. However, the case never went to trial and was dropped under the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
According to figures from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, 1,583 people were charged in connection with the Capitol siege, including 608 accused of assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers.
Before leaving office on Monday, President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons to several individuals, including former Covid-19 pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, and close family members, to shield them from “politically motivated prosecutions” by the Trump administration.
Biden extended similar pardons to former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney and other members of the congressional committee that investigated the January 6 attack.
Just minutes before Trump’s swearing-in, Biden announced pardons for his brother James Biden, James’s wife Sara Jones Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, Valerie’s husband John Owens, and his brother Francis Biden.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics,” Biden stated. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
