Many convicted of January 6 [2021] crimes receive pardons
Ex-Oath Keepers leader released from prison
By: Bart Jansen
USA Today
WASHINGTON - Federal prisoners convicted in the U.S. Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, began to be released after President Donald Trump approved pardons Monday [01/20/2025] for nearly 1,600 people charged in the riot.
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Trump also commuted the sentences for 14 defendants. They include Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia, who had received the second-longest sentence, 18 years for his role in the riot.
..... "These people have been destroyed," Trump said after returning to the Oval Office. "What they've done to these people is outrageous."
..... Rhodes left a federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland, early Tuesday. [01/21/2025]
..... "We're excited about it," Rhodes' lawyer, Ed Tarpley, told USA Today before his client's release. "This is an answered prayer and we're all very happy."
..... Relatives of Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader who received the longest sentence 22 years, for seditious conspiracy, said they expected his release Tuesday. [01/21/2025]
..... Neither Rhodes nor Tarrio entered the Capitol. They were convicted of seditious conspiracy for helping plan the attack.
..... Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys who was credited with being the first to break a window on the Senate said of the Capitol for others to scramble through, had received a 10-year sentence.
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The riot injured 140 police officers, according to Justice Department figures, and temporarily halted Congress from certifying former President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.
..... About 1,270 people were convicted of charges associated with the riot; more than 1,000 pleaded guilty and 260 were convicted at trials. The guilty pleas included 327 people admitting felonies and 682 people admitting misdemeanors.
..... About 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement.
..... Among those who pleaded guilty, 172 admitted assaulting law enforcement, 130 admitted obstructing law enforcement during a riot and 69 admitted assaulting law enforcement with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
..... Representative Nancy Pelosi, D-California, who was House speaker during the riot, said in a statement. "The President's actions are an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution."
.... Key Trump allies in recent weeks had said they did not expect pardons of people who engage in violence.
....."The president does not lie people who abuse police officers," Pam Bondi, Trump's nominee to become attorney general, said in her Senate confirmation hearing last week. [01/15/2025]
..... Vice Prescient JD Vance told Fox News earlier this month: [01/2025] "If you committed violence on that day. obviously you shouldn't be pardoned.
Contributing: Reuters