Just hours after being inaugurated, President Donald Trump officially pardoned about 1,500 of those charged and convicted of offenses related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection and commuted the sentences of 14 others.
Speaking Monday evening from the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., following his inaugural parade, President Trump referred to those charged as "hostages" who were unjustly prosecuted. Among those pardoned include leaders of the far-right extremist groups The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
"This proclamation 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," the presidential proclamation reads.
President Trump also directed the attorney general to dismiss any pending indictments against individuals over their conduct in regards to Jan. 6.
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According to the U.S. Department of Justice, over 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol insurrection and more than 900 have been convicted. Hundreds of more cases are still pending in courts.
Those charges range from destruction of government property to assault and seditious conspiracy. Among the accused, more than 160 have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
An estimated 140 police officers were assaulted on the day of the riot, including about 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.
In the weeks following Trump's reelection, Scripps News spent a couple of evenings outside of the Washington D.C. jail in the area known as the "Freedom Center," where every night for the past two years, a vigil has been held in support of those being held inside.
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Among the vigil attendees was Brandon Fellows, a January 6 participant convicted of trespassing and disorderly conduct. Fellows spent nearly 36 months behind bars, many of those in the so-called “Patriot Wing,” a section of the D.C. Jail housing January 6 defendants.
When asked at the time about the potential pardons from now President Trump, Fellows was unsure.
"I don't want to admit guilt because I didn't know I was breaking the law. They told me I wasn't," he told Scripps News. "So, as cool as having a presidential pardon would be, I've been increasingly in the past week thinking, yeah, I'm not gonna put in for that."
According to a Scirpps News/Ipsos poll conducted following Trump's election victory in November, 64% of respondents said they opposed the idea of pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, including 68% of Independents. Still, more than half of Republicans (56%) said they do support it.
