President-elect Trump says he intends to pardon “most” rioters accused or convicted of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in one of the first official acts of his second presidency.
“It’s going to start in the first hour,” Trump told Time Magazine Thursday, during an interview for his feature as the publication’s 2024 Person of the Year. “Maybe the first nine minutes.”
The president-elect has long vowed to grant clemency to those who descended on the Capitol as Congress certified the 2020 election win of his Democratic opponent, President Biden, describing them on the campaign trail as “political prisoners.”
In court filings, scores of rioters have said they expect immediate relief once Trump returns to the White House, their lawyers asking judges to delay sentencings, trials and other proceedings as Inauguration Day nears. Judges have largely denied those requests.
However, Trump has remained vague on the scope of clemency he’ll take. More than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, their conduct ranging from trespassing misdemeanors to assaulting police and seditious conspiracy against the U.S. government.
Top leaders of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, many convicted of sedition, face decades in prison for their roles in the riot, leading to questions about just how far Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons will go.
Lawyers for Enrique Tarrio, ex-national chairman of the Proud Boys, and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes previously indicated to The Hill that their clients — who are serving some of the longest prison terms handed down in connection with the riot — will also seek pardons.
Biden’s Justice Department, meanwhile, has decried the Capitol attack as an assault on democracy, devoting extensive resources to conduct what the agency describes as one of the largest and most complex prosecutions in its history.
Prosecutors in court filings Wednesday argued to a judge that, although Trump’s pardons might erase the penalties for Jan. 6 rioters, they won’t “unring the bell of conviction.”
“In fact, quite the opposite,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Holvey wrote. “The defendant would first have to accept the pardon, which necessitates a confession of guilt.”
