Trump grants full clemency to all January 6 rioters

President Donald J. Trump, in one of his first official acts, on Monday granted a large measure of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, granting his pardon of most of those charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. of the accused and commuting the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath militia Keepers, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Mr. Trump’s actions were an extraordinary turnaround for rioters charged with both minor, non-violent offenses and those who attacked police officers.

And they effectively erased years of effort by federal investigators to seek accountability for the mob’s assault on the peaceful transfer of presidential power after Mr. Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election. clemency order, Mr. Trump also ordered the Justice Department to dismiss “all pending indictments” that remained against those indicted on January 6.

Sitting in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said he hoped many of the defendants could be released from prison as early as tonight.

“They have already been in prison for a long time,” he said. “These people have been destroyed.”

Mr. Trump’s pardons — “full, complete and unconditional,” he wrote — will affect the lives of about 1,000 defendants charged with crimes including disorderly conduct, trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds and trespassing. building. Many of these rioters served only a few days, weeks or months in prison, if at all.

The pardons will also clear the slate of violent offenders who attacked police on January 6 with baseball bats, two-by-fours and bear spray and who are serving prison sentences, in some cases for more than a decade.