Trump pardons or commutes all charged Jan. 6 rioters

Jan. 6 rioters try to break through police barrier outside the U.S. Capitol

(Image credit: Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

What happened

President Donald Trump Monday night granted a blanket pardon to more than 1,200 supporters convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. He also commuted the sentences of 14 far-right militia members and ordered the Justice Department to drop more than 300 pending Jan. 6 cases.

Trump's actions will release about 400 people from jail, including rioters convicted of violently assaulting police officers, and Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders serving sentences up to 22 years for seditious conspiracy. Hours earlier, outgoing President Joe Biden had issued preemptive pardons for Capitol Police officers and members of the House Jan. 6 Committee, plus some family members and high-profile former officials, to protect them from Trump's threats of retribution.

Who said what

Trump's "sweeping move" gives "some form of clemency to all those charged or convicted in the riot," The Washington Post said. The pardons are a "culmination of Trump's yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack" from a violent attempt to overturn his 2020 loss to a "day of love" whose "patriots" were "hostages" of a partisan justice system, The Associated Press said. Trump's efforts have "gradually worn down the consensus that the riot marked one of American democracy's darkest days," The New York Times said.

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Several Republicans, including Trump's attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, recently criticized the rioters who attacked police officers. Vice President J.D. Vance said on Fox News earlier this month that "if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned."

What next?

Jailed Jan. 6 defendants are already being released from prison. A "pardon is not an expungement of a conviction," the Post said, but "restrictions on voting, gun ownership and other privileges are eliminated."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.