US President Donald Trump issued pardons or commutations for more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the US Capitol riot four years ago.
Fourteen members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two far-right groups, are among those whose sentences were commuted by the new Republican president as he took office on Monday.
Trump also signed an order directing the Department of Justice to drop all pending cases against suspects accused in the riot.
The executive action came shortly after Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the US inside the Capitol, which was stormed by his supporters on 6 January 2021 as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
“These are the hostages, approximately 1,500 for a pardon, full pardon,” Trump said. “This is a big one.”
“These people have been destroyed,” he added. “What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like it in the history of our country.”
The proclamation says that it “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation”.
According to Justice Department figures released earlier this month, approximately 1,583 defendants have been charged with crimes associated with the riot.
More than 600 have been charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing law enforcement, including around 175 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
Capitol Police officers were attacked with weapons including metal batons, wooden planks, flagpoles, fire extinguishers and pepper spray.
The 14 defendants who had their sentences commuted – meaning they will be released, but their convictions will remain on the record – include Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer, led a contingent of his militia members to Washington. They stashed weapons in a hotel room across the Potomac River in Virginia while participating in the melee.
Rhodes did not enter the Capitol but directed his members from outside, and was sentenced in 2023 to 18 years in prison.
Trump issued a blanket “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to all others who were involved in the riot.
They include former Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who was jailed for 22 years for seditious conspiracy over the riot.
Tarrio was not present at the riot, instead watching it on TV from a hotel room in Baltimore after being banned from Washington, DC, following an arrest for weapons offenses.
Tarrio’s lawyer said his client expected to be released, and in a post Tarrio’s mother said he would arrive home in Miami from a federal prison in Louisiana on Tuesday.
The move was swiftly denounced by Democrats as an attempt to re-write history.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who was among the lawmakers forced to flee during the riot, called Trump’s actions “an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution”.
The former top Democrat in Congress said Trump “has decided to make one of his top priorities the abandonment and betrayal of police officers” who had physically fought with protesters to defend lawmakers.
Before he was sworn into office, some Trump aides indicated that he would not issue sweeping pardons, but would instead review each conviction on a case-by-case basis.
Just days ago, Vice-President JD Vance told Fox News “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” He also said there was a “grey area” in some cases.
Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, called for a “case-by-case” review last week during her Senate confirmation hearing when asked whether Trump’s clemency decisions would include those who attacked police officers.
“I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country,” she said.
The Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also recently called for individual case reviews.
Trump’s blanket order came the same day that Joe Biden used the final minutes of his presidency to issue pre-emptive pardons for his brothers and sister, as well as members of the US House of Representatives committee whose investigation into the Capitol riot concluded Trump was to blame.
The melee at the US Capitol, after a Trump rally nearby, lasted several hours. About 140 police officers were injured.
Lawmakers fled during the disorder and an unarmed female rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot inside the building by officers.
The Justice Department launched a nationwide manhunt for suspects in its aftermath, which continued until today.
More than half the convictions have been misdemeanours, such as disorderly conduct or trespassing. Most convictions resulted in sentences of under one year in prison or probation, and most of those convicted have already served their sentences.
Trump previously called those prosecuted for the riot “political prisoners”, who posed “zero threat”.
Democrats describe the day as an attempted insurrection, and an attack on democracy itself.
Washington state Democratic Senator Patty Murray said in a statement: “It’s a sad day for America when a President who refused to relinquish power and incited an insurrection returns to office years later only to grant violent criminals a Presidential pardon or commutation.”
She also accused Trump of trying to “paper over the history and reality of that dark day”.
Meanwhile, supporters and family members of Capitol riot defendants have been waiting outside the jailhouse in Washington DC throughout the cold on Monday, for news that their love ones will be freed by Trump.
A number of those convicted or awaiting trial were being held at the jail, while others were serving sentences in federal prisons across the country.
“Freedom!” one woman shouted earlier, as Trump vowed to release what he refers to as the “J6 hostages” during his speech at the Capitol One arena.
People at the jail said that they expected defendants to begin leaving within hours of Trump’s action.
Derrick Storms, chief legal counsel for defendants in Capitol riot cases, told BBC News that he expects prisoners to be released from the DC jail before midnight.
Source: BBC
