Hundreds of Donald Trump supporters who had been serving prison sentences for participating in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol were freed on Wednesday, after the new president pardoned more than 1,500 people, including some who assaulted police officers.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons said 211 people had been released from federal facilities following Trump’s order.
Trump’s sweeping pardon — which went further than his allies had signalled they expected — drew condemnation from police who battled the mob, their families and lawmakers, including some of the president’s fellow Republicans.
“The president’s actions are 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,” former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Michael Fanone, a former Washington police officer who was repeatedly shocked with a Taser and badly beaten by members of the pro-Trump mob, said he has been “betrayed by my country.”
“And I’ve been betrayed by those that supported Donald Trump,” Fanone told CNN. “The leader of the Republican Party pardoned hundreds of violent cop assaulters. Six individuals who assaulted me as I did my job on January 6… will now walk free.”
The decision was also criticised by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the largest police union in the US that had endorsed Trump in the 2024 election. The FOP and the International Association of Chiefs of Police said in a joint statement they were “deeply discouraged” by the pardons.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt defended the pardons, claiming without evidence that many of the convictions were politically motivated.
“President Trump campaigned on this promise,” she said on Fox News. “It should come as no surprise that he delivered on it on Day One.”
Former Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders released
Among those released was Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, who had been serving an 18-year sentence after being found guilty of plotting to use force to prevent Congress from certifying Trump’s 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.
“It’s redemption, but also vindication,” Rhodes told reporters outside the Washington DC jail, where a crowd of Trump supporters waited for more prisoners to be released.
Earlier in the day, Enrique Tarrio, the walked free.
Tarrio was not present at the Capitol on January 6, but was sentenced to 22 years, longer than for any other defendant, after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the attack.
The pardons were celebrated in posts on Proud Boys Telegram channels, with several chapters using them as recruiting tools and others volunteering to help enforce Trump’s pledge to deport millions of migrants.
Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the far-right Proud Boys, was convicted of crimes including seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the Capitol riot that sought to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election defeat of Trump in 2020. Source: AP
‘The man who killed my brother’
Craig Sicknick, whose brother, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was assaulted during the riot and died of multiple strokes the next day, called Trump “pure evil” on Wednesday.
“The man who killed my brother is now president,” he told the Reuters news agency.
“My brother died in vain. Everything he did to try to protect the country, to protect the Capitol — why did he bother?” Sicknick said. “What Trump did is despicable, and it proves that the United States no longer has anything that resembles a justice system.”
An image of the late US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick on display at the US Capitol in Washington. Source: AAP
Trump’s order extended from the people who committed only misdemeanours such as trespassing all the way to those who served as ringleaders for the assault.
‘Justice has come’
But the pardons were welcomed by January 6 defendants and their Republican backers.
Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” who became one of the faces of the Capitol riot because of his red, white and blue facepaint, bare chest and unusual horned headgear, welcomed the pardon in a post on X.
“I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” said Chansley. “J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME…”
Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman”, became one of the faces of the January 6 2021 assault on the US Capitol because of his red, white and blue facepaint, bare chest and unusual headgear. Source: SIPA USA / /
“God bless President Trump!!!” said far-right Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“It’s finally over. J6’ers are being released,” Greene said on X. “Never forget what the Democrats did.”
Trump, hours after being sworn in on Tuesday, granted pardons to more than 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol including those convicted of assaulting police officers.
He described them as “hostages” and ordered that all pending criminal cases against Capitol riot defendants be dropped.
The Capitol assault followed a fiery speech by then-president Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 race. He then encouraged the crowd to march on Congress.
Trump was charged with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
But the case never made it to trial, and was dropped following Trump’s November election victory under the US justice department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
With additional reporting by Reuters and AFP.
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