With the simple flick of a pen, President Donald Trump on Monday completely sidelined the Justice Department’s four-year effort to arrest, prosecute and punish the people who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 .
It was the largest criminal investigation in American history, those who heeded Trump’s call in 2021 to come to Washington and try to stop Congress from certifying his defeat in the 2020 election. More than 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the seven-hour siege , which also led to the deaths of four Trump supporters in the crowd and five police officers.
The presidential proclamation signed by Trump in the Oval Office states that this mass clemency action “puts an end to a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated against the American people.”
Two brothers convicted for their role in the attack on the US Capitol were the first to be released. Andrew Valentin and Matthew Valentin, who were sentenced last week to two and a half years in prison, walked out of the DC Central Jail on Monday night.
Here’s what you should know:
– Virtually all those convicted were pardoned: The proclamation signed by Trump grants a “total, complete and unconditional pardon” to practically all people who were convicted of crimes related to January 6th.
– Commutations for leaders of extremist groups: Trump’s proclamation highlighted 14 members of far-right extremist groups, such as the and the , who received commutations instead of pardons. This means they will be released from federal prison, but will not have their civil rights restored, as with a full pardon, which paves the way for the recipient to regain the right to own a gun or the right to vote.
– Withdrawal of all pending cases: Trump’s proclamation ordered about 300 pending cases to be dropped.
– Trump went further than expected: during and after the 2024 campaign, Trump stops . But he also hesitated at times. In recent weeks, Trump allies have argued that pardons would be restricted to non-violent defendants. But there was no “case-by-case” analysis, as Trump’s advisers promised.
– Justified them with lies: Trump justified the pardons with the same series of lies and false claims he used for years to cover up violence, deflect blame and rewrite history.
