Trump's pardon on January 6 gives the defendants almost everything they want

As of Monday, some members of Donald Trump's team did not appear to believe he would release all those detained after the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“If you committed acts of violence that day, obviously you should not be pardoned,” Vice President J.D. Vance said just over a week ago.

A few days later, Trump's nominee for Attorney General, Pam Bondi, while testifying before Congress, agreed with the Democratic Senator who asked her to condemn the violence that occurred that day.

“I do not agree with violence against any police officer,” she said, adding that she was prepared to look individually into each of the more than 1,500 riot-related cases.

However, Trump took a more comprehensive approach to these issues on his first day in office.

He issued a series of commutations and a sweeping pardon that freed virtually all of the rioters and erased the work of the largest criminal investigation in US history.

His executive order Monday gave the rioters and their supporters almost everything they had been demanding, except for financial compensation from the government that some prisoner groups had demanded.

“These people are devastated,” Trump said after signing the order. “What they did to these people is outrageous. There has rarely been anything like this in the history of our country.”

Celebratory scenes were witnessed outside the Washington, D.C., prison, where a number of detainees were being held in connection with the riots, as well as on social media accounts run by the defendants and their supporters.

Mother of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Who was released on Tuesdayposted regular updates about her son.

“Our president has given my son and all the J6ers' lives back!” Zuni wrote Tario after learning he would be released from his 22-year sentence. “They can live again! Breathe the fresh air again! Feel the sunshine again!”

Among those released from a Washington, D.C., prison on Tuesday was Rachel Powell of Pennsylvania, who was sentenced to more than four years in prison after smashing a window in the Capitol with an ice axe.

Speaking outside prison, she told the BBC that she would now return home in time to celebrate her son's birthday, and praised Trump for keeping his promise. “He is a bigger blessing to me than I could have ever imagined,” she said.

Some observers, including policy experts and lawyers representing the rioters, were surprised by the size of the president's order.

“The general consensus was that we would see a distinction between those who committed acts of violence and those who did not,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit group that opposed amnesty.

“Donald Trump ran for president on law and order, so it is shocking and disturbing to see him take action to pardon violent criminals,” she added.

Fourteen people convicted of some of the most serious crimes have had their sentences commuted, meaning their crimes will still be recorded, but they will still be able to be released from prison.

In its latest update, the Justice Department said nearly 1,583 people have been arrested or convicted of crimes related to the riots.

More than 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police, including about 175 who were charged with using a weapon or causing serious injury to an officer.

Most of those convicted have served their sentences, or were not sentenced to prison at all, but about 250 people still in prison have begun to be released.

It appeared that any further investigations – as the FBI was still searching for at least 13 suspects and fugitives – would be halted.

Underscoring the sweeping decisiveness of his move, Trump appointed Ed Martin to the position of acting US Attorney in Washington, DC – a prosecutorial role that was primarily responsible for prosecuting riot cases.

Martin organized a pro-Trump rally the day before the riot, and has been a vocal critic of the entire investigation.

During the campaign, Trump made various statements about rioters, at times promising blanket pardons but at times indicating that he might be inclined to keep some of them behind bars.

Supporters of the rioters cheered the blanket amnesty on Monday, and have long described the sentences for people they call “J6 hostages” and “political prisoners” as politically motivated and harsh.

“The idea that this event somehow threatens the republic is exaggerated,” Norm Pattis, a lawyer who defended some of the prisoners, told BBC NewsHour, adding that Confederate rebels were pardoned after the Civil War.

“If we could come together as a country after this act of violence, after people openly took up arms and killed each other…why were we still prosecuting people for criminal trespass four years later after an afternoon riot?” He said.

However, opinion polls indicate that blanket amnesties, including for those convicted of violence, are unpopular. Modern Associated Press poll Only two out of ten Americans indicated approval for pardoning most of those involved.

Winston Bingon, the Capitol Police officer who was punched and pepper-sprayed that day, told Newshour the pardon was a “slap in the face.”

“It is truly unprecedented to know that these violent criminals who were convicted by a jury of their peers of crimes that were widely broadcast for all parts of the country and the world to see will go free,” he said.

In his executive order, Trump explained why he chose to commute the sentences of the 14 convicts rather than grant them a full pardon. The list includes members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militias. Oath Keepers leader Stuart Rhodes was on the list and was released in the early hours of Tuesday, his lawyer said.

Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer, led the Oath Keepers into Washington in the days before the riot. The group hid weapons in a hotel room across the Potomac River in Virginia, according to trial evidence. Rhodes did not enter the Capitol building, but directed its members from outside, and was sentenced in 2023 to 18 years in prison.

Rhodes' lawyer, James Lee Bright, told the BBC that even those close to these cases were surprised by the broad nature of the pardon procedures and the speed of the prisoners' release.

“Despite our relationships with people close to the president, they were very silent” before the executive order, Bright said.

Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, received a full pardon, although five other members of his group are on the commutation list. Tarrio was not in the crowd that day, having been banned from entering the city. Instead, he reached out to his fellow Proud Boys from a hotel in nearby Baltimore.

After Rhodes' arrest, the Oath Keepers mostly suspended operations, while the Proud Boys focused on local protests, particularly against transgender activists and Check out the story hours. The latter group has also suffered from infighting between founding members and splinter groups that openly promote white nationalist ideas.

Wendy Via, CEO and co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said newly released militia members may try to continue their activities, bringing largely dissipated far-right groups back into the spotlight.

Dozens of Proud Boys were seen on Monday marching across Washington to celebrate the inauguration.

“Do the Proud Boys start trying to centralize the organization again, like they did in 2021? That's going to be a big question,” Ms Via said.

She added: “The implications of this pardon are that Trump sent a message that violence is an effective tool for change, as long as he is on his side.”

With additional reporting from Regan Morris and Emma Vardy