President Donald Trump has granted sweeping clemency to everyone who rioted in and around the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump issued pardons and commutations to individuals who are facing charges or serving time for offenses related to the violent mob that injured many law enforcement officers and threatened the lives of lawmakers and their staff.
He also commuted the sentences of 14 organizers of the Jan. 6 riot, reducing their sentences to time served as of Trump’s Inauguration Day.
The commutations included some of the most notorious figures in the attack, like Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, a militia group, and one of his chapter leaders, Kelly Meggs. They were convicted by a jury of seditious conspiracy.
Enrique Tarrio and Joseph Biggs, the former leader of the Proud Boys and one of his top lieutenants, were also on the list of commutations. Biggs was sentenced to more than a decade in prison for seditious conspiracy among other charges.
“No organization put more boots on the ground at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, than the Proud Boys, and they were at the forefront of every major breach of the Capitol’s defenses, leading the on-the-ground efforts to storm the seat of government,” Matthew M. Graves, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement after Biggs was convicted.
Trump reportedly declined a case-by-case review that many in Congress and some of his own top advisers were pushing for, instead calling for legal relief for nearly everyone who has been charged in the event, according to The Washington Post.
As of this week, 169 people were currently behind bars for their roles in the Jan. 6 riot. The prospect of their release has caused serious concern among Department of Justice officials, former law enforcement officers and extremism experts, who have warned their early releases risk future acts of violence, as NOTUS reported.
The impact of these pardons and commutations could be severe, extremism experts say.
George Washington University researcher Luke Baumgartner warned of further radicalization in prison, especially as many of the J6 inmates have served time together.
“Not to sound alarm bells, but we’re running the risk of these groups coming back stronger,” Baumgartner said.
In a previous interview, Baumgartner warned that pardons would be “an endorsement of their violence. It’s excusing it. It’s saying it’s OK.”
While Republicans in Congress supported some form of clemency for some of the Jan. 6 defendants, most lawmakers said they wanted Trump to only pardon non-violent offenders.
Sen. Thom Tillis told NOTUS on Monday night before Trump had signed the pardons that he was “opposed to anyone who was convicted — I mean, I just can’t support a pardon for anyone who’s convicted of assaulting a police officer, I just won’t do it.”
Tillis said it was still the president’s decision and that Republicans in Congress didn’t have much involvement.
Some Republican lawmakers have repeatedly downplayed the events that transpired that day. Sen. Cynthia Lumis simply said she is “very, very, pleased,” that Trump might offer blanket pardons for participants.
Trump foreshadowed the pardons in an off-the-cuff speech after his inauguration ceremony, referencing the inmates as “J6 hostages,” though he did not reference the pardons during his official ceremony remarks.
During an unscheduled second speech Monday in Emancipation Hall, Trump told supporters they would “be happy because it’s actions, not words, that count.” He also railed against the House’s Jan. 6 investigation, as well as the criminal investigations into the attack on the Capitol, repeatedly claiming without evidence that the government “deleted everything” from those cases and blaming former Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the events on Jan. 6, 2021. He went on to threaten Pelosi with a criminal investigation.
Tom Warrick, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and director of its Future of DHS Project, told NOTUS it was important to identify the “appetite for violence” ahead of the pardons.
“I actually do think most of the people are not likely to go back into political violence, but there are some who might,” he said.
Jackson Reffitt, the son of a Jan. 6 rioter, said his father is an example of just that. He told CNN he’s terrified and not sure what to do. “I’ve talked to my father before, and I thought it had gotten better, and it really hadn’t,” he said in an interview on CNN. “My dad is still involved with these militias, he still talks with a martyr’s status. He has no change. He’s more galvanized than ever, that I’ve seen.”
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Claire Heddles, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report. Mark Alfred, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report.
Correction: A previous version of this article misattributed a quote from Sen. Thom Tillis.