Washington — 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 was 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. Tarrio’s family said Monday night that he was pardoned and released from prison and he would arrive on a flight to Miami Tuesday afternoon. That hasn’t been confirmed by CBS News.
Who had their sentences commuted?
Trump commuted the sentences of more than a dozen people, according to his proclamation, including:
- Stewart Rhodes: The founder of the far-right group the Oath Keepers who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other crimes;
- Kelly Meggs: the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers who was sentenced to 12 years behind bars;
- Kenneth Harrelson: A member of the Oath Keepers who was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding and other charges and was sentenced to four years in prison;
- Thomas Caldwell: Another Oath Keepers member who was sentenced to time served;
- Jessica Watkins: a member of the Oath Keepers who was sentenced to 8.5 years of incarceration;
- Roberto Minuta: An Oath Keepers member convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 54 months in prison;
- Edward Vallejo: Another Oath Keepers member who received a three-year sentence after he was found guilty of seditious conspiracy;
- David Moerschel: An Oath Keepers member convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to three years incarceration;
- Joseph Hackett: A member of the Oath Keepers who was sentenced to 42 months in prison after he was found guilty of seditious conspiracy
- Ethan Nordean: One of the leaders of the Proud Boys who received a sentence of 18 years in prison after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy;
- Joseph Biggs: A Proud Boys leader who was sentenced to 17 years in prison;
- Zachary Rehl: Another Proud Boys leader, was sentenced to 15 years in prison;
- Dominic Pezzola: A Proud Boys member sentenced to 10 years in prison and was seen on video smashing a Capitol window with a riot shield;
- Jeremy Bertino: A Proud Boys member who entered a guilty plea to seditious conspiracy.
The pardons cap a remarkable sequence of events that has played out in the wake of the 2020 election, when Mr. Trump mounted a scheme to overturn its results to hold onto power for a second term, as alleged by federal prosecutors and House investigators.
That plot culminated in the Jan. 6 attack, as investigators said the president had spent weeks sowing doubt about the integrity of the 2020 election and urged his supporters in a speech outside the White House on Jan. 6 to “fight like hell” and “stop the steal.”
The Justice Department has said more than 140 police officers were assaulted during the riot at the Capitol. The losses suffered as a result of the riot, including damage to the building and grounds, exceeded $2.8 million, according to the department.
But four years after Mr. Trump allegedly attempted to subvert the transfer of power, he has returned to the White House after defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris. In one of her final acts as vice president, she presided over the joint session this year that confirmed Mr. Trump’s victory.
Keeping Mr. Trump’s promise to grant reprieves to those charged in connection with the riot, several defendants sought to have court action in their cases delayed in the wake of the election.
The authority to issue pardons for federal offenses rests exclusively with the president under the Constitution, but presidents typically work with the Justice Department’s pardon attorney to consider requests for clemency.
Pam Bondi, the president’s pick for attorney general, was asked during her confirmation hearing last week whether she believed Jan. 6 defendants who were convicted of assaulting law enforcement should be given clemency, and said she would review each case and advise “on a case-by-case basis” if asked by the president to do so.
“I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country,” she said.
Mr. Trump’s decision is likely to stir anger from police officers who were injured during the Jan. 6 attack and testified before the House select committee that investigated the riot in 2022, as well as committee members themselves, some of whom are no longer in Congress.
Meanwhile, judges on the federal district court in Washington, where the cases involving Jan. 6 have been brought, have continued to resist efforts to lessen the severity of what transpired more than four years ago in the eyes of the public.
“No matter what ultimately becomes of the Capital Riots cases already concluded and still pending, the true story of what happened on January 6, 2021 will never change,” Senior Judge Royce Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, said during a December sentencing.
Lamberth said that “just as the president must make decisions on matters of clemency without interference from the coordinate branches, so too must our judiciary independently administer the laws and sentence convicted offenders.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked those who investigated the Jan. 6 assault and threatened to punish his political opponents, including former special counsel Jack Smith and the lawmakers who were on the House select committee that investigated the attack.
In anticipation of possible retribution by Mr. Trump, Biden preemptively pardoned members of the Jan. 6 select committee and its staff, as well as Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the panel, during his final hours in office.
Robert Legare
contributed to this report.
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