Trump pardons 1,500 people charged with inciting

21/1/2025 10:30

President Donald Trump on

Monday pardoned about 1,500 people who stormed the U.S. Capitol

on Jan. 6, 2021, in a sweeping gesture of support to the people

who assaulted police as they tried to prevent lawmakers from

certifying his 2020 election defeat.



"We hope they come out tonight, frankly," Trump said. "We're

expecting it."



He said that six defendants would have their sentences

shortened.



The moves fulfill a campaign promise by the Republican to

aid supporters who were charged and in many cases imprisoned for

crimes committed during the riot, a failed attempt to stop the

congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's 2020

election victory.



A lawyer for the former leader of the far-right Proud

Boys group, Enrique Tarrio, said he expected his client to be

released from federal prison.



Some federal inmates serving Jan. 6-related sentences

could be released as soon as Monday, a Bureau of Prisons

spokesperson confirmed, adding that the bureau was still waiting

on official action by Trump.



Thousands descended on the Capitol in 2021 following an

incendiary speech by Trump, tearing down barricades, fighting

police and sending lawmakers and Trump's vice president Mike

Pence running for their lives as they met to formalize the

election result.



Trump has argued that many of the nearly 1,600 people

charged in the riot have been treated unfairly by the legal

system and in remarks to supporters at the Capitol after being

sworn in on Monday once again called them "hostages."



The lawyer for Tarrio, Nayib Hassan, said he was not

sure if Tarrio would receive a full pardon or a commutation

cutting short his sentence. His mother also posted on X that

Tarrio would be released.



Tarrio is serving a 22-year sentence, the longest of anyone

criminally charged in the riot, for seditious conspiracy. He was

found guilty of plotting to violently oppose the transfer of

power after the 2020 election.



A lawyer for Tarrio's co-defendant, Joe Biggs, said he

was also told by an intermediary that Biggs is being processed

for release. Biggs, who held a senior post in the Proud Boys,

was also convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 17

years in prison.



Speaking to supporters at Washington's Capital One

Arena, Trump did not specify how many people he planned to

pardon. But the preparations for Tarrio and Biggs suggest that

those accused of the most serious crimes over the Capitol attack

could be among those receiving clemency.



"We're going to release our great hostages that didn't do --

for the most part -- they didn't do stuff wrong," Trump said. He

has frequently referred to Capitol riot defendants as "hostages"

even though they have been subject to the normal criminal

process and many have admitted to or been found guilty of

criminal offenses.







PARDONS, COMMUTATIONS



A source familiar with his plans said earlier on Monday that

Trump intends to cut short sentences for some people who

attacked police and issue full pardons to people who did not

commit violence.



Prosecutors accused Tarrio, Biggs and the rest of the Proud

Boys leadership of mobilizing for violence after Trump lost the

2020 election and playing a leading role in instigating the

breach of the Capitol.



Leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers organizations are

among those serving time in federal prison for their roles in

the violence. More than 600 people have been charged with

assaulting or obstructing police during the riot, according to

U.S. Justice Department figures.



Trump vowed during his 2024 campaign to pardon many of those

charged, arguing they had been treated unfairly by the legal

system.



The presidential clemency power includes the ability to

remove legal consequences of a conviction through a pardon or to

cut short or modify a sentence through a commutation.



The U.S. Constitution gives presidents broad pardon power

and there is no legal mechanism for challenging a presidential

pardon.



Key Trump allies in recent weeks said they did not expect

pardons of people who engaged in violence.



"The president does not like people who abuse police

officers," Trump's attorney general nominee Pam Bondi said last

week during her Senate confirmation hearing.



Likewise, Vice President JD Vance in an interview with Fox

News earlier this month said, "If you committed violence on that

day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned."