The ordeal may not end for some of the more than 1,500 criminal defendants granted clemency by the president donald trump, As some prosecutors are currently investigating whether certain individuals – particularly those who allegedly committed violent crimes – could be charged at the local level.
That loophole was brought up by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who told CNN that his office was looking into the possibility of bringing election- or conspiracy-related charges against some Pennsylvania residents who were pardoned or saw their sentences served in prison during the first week of Trump's presidency. .
Krasner's office could theoretically take action against more than 100 Pennsylvanians who have received full pardons or prison transfers, including a Proud Boys leader in Philadelphia who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on a conspiracy charge and another man in Pittsburgh who is serving a probation sentence. 14 years in prison for randomly spraying pepper spray at police officers, throwing a folding chair at officers and wielding a large wooden “tire”, “tires”, “tires”, “tires”, According to the Ministry of Justice.
Krasner declined to elaborate on how his office moved, or if it was his office, and his office did not respond to several requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
However, Krasner stressed that in his view, “there is a way” to ship individuals on January 6 — and not just those living in the Keystone state.
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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner asserts that in his opinion, “there is a path” to charging individuals for crimes related to January 6, 2021. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
Trump's decision to sign a sweeping act of liberating clemency More than 1500 people who was charged in connection with the Capitol breach on January 6, 2021. More than 100 police officers were injured, according to officials, and the incident ultimately sparked the largest FBI investigation in the bureau's history.
“In many cases, it will be possible for us to go after people who have been pardoned by the feds,” Krasner said. He told CNN Thursday.
“The focus for most state attorneys general should be what happened within their jurisdiction,” he said. “Text messages, phone calls, emails, or reservations for transportation or hotels. Conspiratorial activity may result in a local charge — meaning a state charge — of criminal conspiracy.”
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President Donald Trump, right, signs his pardon on January 6 in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2025. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
Legal hurdles, 'double jeopardy' fears
However, this does not mean that the strategy is not without major obstacles.
Former prosecutors told Fox News Digit that those looking to bring state charges for Jan. 6 will find themselves mired in a complex legal minefield.
difficulty Securing state convictions It has nothing to do with the seriousness of the crimes committed by the Jan. 6 rioters — which range from charges of conspiracy and astonishing conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding to assault and assault against police officers — but, rather, court cases and broad matters of double jeopardy. .
Here, the facts are particularly complex, because both Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Capitol grounds fall under federal court jurisdiction, former Attorney General Andrew McCarthy explained in a Thursday letter to the Fox News Digitizer.
This means that any conspiracy to commit a crime would inherently be at the federal level—a complex Catch-22 that would be difficult for state prosecutors to isolate in court.
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Pro-Trump protesters clash with police at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. President Donald Trump used his first day in office in 2025 to issue a blanket quarter grant to more than 1,500 individuals charged with testimony. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
State prosecutors have a very narrow scope in trying to establish new criminal proceedings.
That's because they must do so while respecting the broad double jeopardy protection included in the U.S. Constitution, which bars individuals from being tried for the same case twice. It also means that they cannot be tried twice for the same behavior.
In fact, for state prosecutors to bring charges against an individual, successive actions must be shown to be focused on remedying “an entirely different kind of harm or evil” than the federal charges, and it is unclear whether states will be able to meet that burden of proof.
McCarthy and other lawyers pointed to a 2019 decision by a New York judge who cited the double jeopardy clause as the rationale for prosecutors tossing out a 16-year-old indictment against Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, ruling that the conduct was not sufficiently different.
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Pro-Trump supporters storm the United States Capitol after a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Core/Getty Images)
It's unclear how, or if, any charges brought by prosecutors could meet the test of proving “a different kind of harm or evil”—but Krasner, a self-declared Democrat who spent more than 20 years as a prosecutor, said he thinks so.
He's not the only one who shares this feeling. A partner in Elias Law's group Surrounding Law for Democrats told Fox News Digit in an emailed statement on Friday that he believes “any individuals who committed crimes that day should be held accountable.”
“If any of the rioters violated state laws, that is up to local and state law enforcement officials to review the facts and reach charges as appropriate,” the attorney said. “The rule of law must be upheld, regardless of President Trump’s political incentives.”
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Republicans have been forced to toe a fine line in the wake of President Donald Trump's pardon — facing tough questions about what clemency orders are for a party long seen as “backing blue.” (Kevin LaMarque/Reuters, Swimming Pool)
Meanwhile, Republicans have been forced to tread a fine line in the wake of Trump's pardon — facing tough questions about what the clemency orders are for a party long seen as “pro-blue” and supportive of protecting police officers.
Vice President J.D. Vance used Interview on CBS News on Sunday to accuse former Attorney General Merrick Garland of applying “a double standard in how sentences are applied to J6 protesters, versus other groups,” in an attempt to soften his earlier remarks.
Vance, a former US senator, told Fox News that the January 6 participants who committed the violence “obviously” should not be pardoned.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-No. “The president has made his decision,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I'm not guessing those,” Johnson said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., told reporters she was “disappointed to see” the decision to pardon violent offenders, including those convicted of violence against police officers. (AL Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Others were more direct in their criticism.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., told reporters she was “disappointed to see” the decision to pardon violent offenders, including those convicted of violence against police officers.
“I fear the message being sent to these great men and women who stood with us,” she said.
This was echoed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who told reporters that the pardon was “profoundly un-American.”
“Let's be clear, President Trump did not just pardon protesters,” Schumer said. “They pardoned individuals convicted of assaulting police officers. They pardoned individuals convicted of bad conspiracy. They pardoned those who tried to undermine our democracy.”
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More than 200 people were in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons system before Trump's pardon. By Tuesday morning, all of them had been released, officials said Associated Press.
Ed Martin, a defense attorney who represented three men charged in the Jan. 6 riot, has been appointed United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Martin He made the motion on Friday To remove all remaining conditions imposed on the defendants on January 6, including restrictions that prevented certain individuals from entering Washington, D.C., or the U.S. Capitol.
