Until Monday, even some of Donald Trump’s team did not seem to believe that he would release all those arrested after the riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“If you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn’t be forgiven,” Vice President JD Vance said a little over a week ago.
Days later, testifying before Congress, Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi agreed with a Democratic senator who asked her to condemn the violence that day.
“I don’t agree with violence against any police officer,” she said, adding that she was willing to review each of the more than 1,500 riot-related cases individually.
Trump, however, took a far more sweeping approach to the cases on his first day in office.
He issued several commutations and a general pardon that effectively freed all the miscreants and erased the work of the largest criminal investigation in US history.
His executive order on Monday gave the rebels and their supporters almost everything they had been pushing for, except for the government compensation demanded by some prisoner groups.
These people are destroyed, Trump said after signing the order. “What they did to these people is outrageous. Rarely has there been such a thing in the history of our country.”
There were scenes of celebration outside the prison in Washington DC where many of those arrested for rioting were being held, as well as on social media accounts run by the defendants and their supporters.
Mother of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was released on Tuesdayshe regularly posted updates about her son.
“Our president brought my son and all the J6ers back to life!” Zuny Tarrio wrote after learning he would be released from his 22-year sentence. “They can live again! Breathe the fresh air again! Feel the sun again!”
One of those released from a Washington prison on Tuesday was Rachel Powell of Pennsylvania, who was sentenced to more than four years in prison after smashing a Capitol window with an ax.
Speaking outside the prison, she told the BBC she would now be home in time for her son’s birthday and praised Trump for keeping his promise. He is a greater blessing to me than I could ever imagine, she said.
Some observers, including political experts and lawyers representing the rebels, were taken aback by the extent of the president’s order.
“The general consensus was that we would see a difference between those who had committed violent acts and those who had not,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit group that opposed the pardon.
“Donald Trump ran for office based on law and order, so it’s shocking and disturbing to see him take action to pardon violent criminals,” she said.
Fourteen people convicted of some of the most serious crimes have had their sentences commuted – meaning that their offenses will remain on the record, but they will still be released from prison.
The Justice Department said in its latest update that approximately 1,583 people had been arrested or convicted of riot-related crimes.
More than 600 have been charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police, including about 175 accused of using a weapon or causing serious injury to an officer.
Most of the convicts served their sentences or did not receive a prison sentence at all, but about 250 of them who are still in prison have started to be released.
It appears that any further investigations – the FBI was still looking for at least 13 suspects and fugitives – will be halted.
Underscoring the sweeping finality of his move, Trump appointed Ed Martin as Acting US Attorney for Washington DC – the role of the prosecutor who was primarily responsible for handling riot cases.
Martin organized a pro-Trump rally the day before the riots and has been a vocal critic of the entire investigation.
During the campaign, Trump made mixed statements about the rioters, at times promising blanket pardons but occasionally indicating that he might be inclined to keep some of them behind bars.
Rebel supporters welcomed his blanket pardon on Monday and have long described the sentences handed down to the men they call “J6 hostages” and “political prisoners” as politically motivated and harsh.
Norm Pattis, a lawyer who defended some of the prisoners, told BBC Newshour that “the idea that this event is somehow a threat to the republic is overblown,” adding that Confederate rebels were pardoned after the Civil War.
“If we could come together as a country after such a violent act, and after people openly took up arms and killed each other … why were we still prosecuting people for trespassing four years later after the afternoon riots?” he said.
Polls, however, show that a general pardon, including for violent convicts, is unpopular. Recent Associated Press poll shows that only two in ten Americans approve of pardoning most of those involved.
Winston Pingeon, the Capitol Police officer who was hit and pepper-sprayed that day, told the Newshour that the pardons were a “slap in the face.”
“It is truly unprecedented to know that these violent criminals who have been convicted by a jury of their peers of crimes that have been widely publicized throughout the country and the world, will walk free,” he said.
In his executive order, Trump explained why he decided to commute the 14 convicts instead of offering them a full pardon. The list includes members of the far-right militias Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes was on the list and was released in the early hours of Tuesday, his lawyer said.
Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer, led the Oath Keepers to Washington in the days leading up to the rebellion. The group hid the weapons in a hotel room across the Potomac River in Virginia, according to trial evidence. Rhodes did not enter the Capitol but managed his members from the outside, and was sentenced in 2023 to 18 years in prison.
Rhodes’ lawyer, James Lee Bright, told the BBC that even those close to the cases were surprised by the broad nature of the pardon process and the speed with which prisoners were released.
“Despite our relationships with people close to the president, they were extremely stingy” before the executive order, Bright said.
Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, was given a full pardon, although five other members of his group were on the replacement list. Tarrio was not in the crowd that day because he was banned from entering the city. Instead, he communicated with fellow Proud Boys from a hotel in nearby Baltimore.
After Rhodes’ arrest, the Oath Keepers largely ceased operations, while the Proud Boys focused on local protests, particularly against transgender activists and dear talk hours. The latter group was also plagued by internal conflicts between established members and breakaway groups that explicitly promoted white nationalist ideas.
Wendy Via, executive director and co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said newly released militia members may try to resume their activities, putting far-right groups that have largely dispersed back into the spotlight.
On Monday, dozens of Proud Boys were seen marching through Washington to celebrate the inauguration.
“Will the Proud Boys start trying to centralize the organization again, like they did in 2021? That’s going to be a big question,” Ms. Via said.
“The effect of these pardons is that Trump has sent a message that violence is a viable tool for change, as long as it is on his side,” she added.
With additional reporting by Regan Morris and Emma Vardy
