Vern Evans
President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to pardon people convicted of or charged with crimes for their roles in breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and he will start immediately after taking office in January.
Trump won’t do a blanket pardon for everyone, he stipulated. Rather, he plans to issue pardons on a case-by-case basis, he told Time Magazine in an interview published Thursday. Time chose Trump as the magazine’s 2024 “Person of the Year.”
“Well, we’re going to look at each individual case, and we’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office,” Trump said.
Of the approximately 1,400 people who have faced charges for their involvement in the Capitol breach, 222 have military backgrounds, according to data from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. That number includes two veterans convicted of orchestrating the attack, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stuart Rhodes. Tarrio was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and Rhodes received 22 years.
Some veterans are among a wave of Jan. 6 defendants who asked the courts in November to delay their cases until after Trump’s inauguration, expecting the incoming president to follow through on promises to pardon them.
On the campaign trail this year, Trump referred to the people convicted for their participation on Jan. 6 as “hostages.” At a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists in July, he said they were convicted “by a very tough system.” Trump reiterated those sentiments in the Time Magazine interview.
“They’ve suffered greatly, and in many cases they should not have suffered,” he said.
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Trump said he would look at each case to determine if the individuals were “non-violent,” implying that people convicted or charged with violent crimes might not receive a pardon. However, he felt that “a vast majority of them should not be in jail.”
“I’m going to look if there’s some that really were out of control,” Trump said.
As of August, 547 defendants had been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees, including 163 individuals who were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, according to the Justice Department.
Eleven people faced charges associated with assaulting a member of the media or destroying their equipment, and 87 defendants were charged with destruction of government property.
Joseph Biggs, an Army veteran and Proud Boys leader, is among those seeking relief from Trump. Biggs led other Proud Boys members in their march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, where he tore through a fence and was among a group that pushed through police lines, according to prosecutors.
In a call from jail that aired on MSNBC last year, Biggs said, “I do believe Donald J. Trump will pardon us, and he should. We didn’t do anything. We’re his supporters. We went there when he asked.”
This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to [email protected].
Nikki Wentling covers disinformation and extremism for Military Times. She’s reported on veterans and military communities for eight years and has also covered technology, politics, health care and crime. Her work has earned multiple honors from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors and others.
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