Donald Trump said we will “most likely” issue pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
The president-elect claimed members of the House committee formed to investigate the incident should all “go to jail.” Trump said he was looking to issue pardons for the rioters on his first day in office and claimed those who have been incarcerated as a result of the insurrection are “living in hell.”
Trump said the rioters have all been put through a “very nasty system”. During an interview with Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, he said: “I’m going to be acting very quickly. First day.”
He later added: “They’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
Trump said there could be “some exceptions” to his sweeping pardon. He said he will think twice about granting clemency “if somebody was radical, crazy”.
At least 1,572 defendants have been charged, and 1,251 were convicted or pleaded guilty in the attack. Of them, at least 645 were sentenced to periods of incarceration ranging from just a few days to 22 years in federal prison.
Roughly 250 people are currently in custody, and most of them are serving sentences after convictions. Only a handful are being held in pretrial custody. He also didn’t rule out individuals who had pleaded guilty, including those who had admitted to assaulting police officers.
Trump said: “They had no choice. I know the system. The system’s a very corrupt system. They say to a guy, ‘You’re going to jail for two years or for 30 years.’ And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed for two years, they’ve been destroyed. But the system is a very nasty system.”
The crimes the Jan. 6 rioters were accused of range from unlawful parading to seditious conspiracy. Many were convicted after surveillance footage of the area captured them assaulting police officers. They later admitted under oath that they’d done so.
Among the defendants in custody include Proud Boys and Oath Keepers convicted of seditious conspiracy as well as a defendant who was recently convicted of plotting to kill the FBI special agents who investigated him. Yet another was charged with firing shots into the air during the attack, and another still was arrested outside of former President Barack Obama’s home after Trump posted a screenshot that included the address.
Trump said he will not turn the Justice Department on his political opponents and his new appointees will decide whether or not to investigate the members of the House committee.
“I want her to do what she (Pam Bondi) wants to do,” he said. “I’m not going to instruct her to do it.”
He claimed members of the House committee “lied” and “destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony”.
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Transcripts and videos of some of the over-1,000 witnesses to the riot were preserved by the committee and posted online, however, with some of the interviews containing private and sensitive information having been sent to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for review so as to ensure that certain information wasn’t released improperly.
Those transcripts reportedly remain with the agency, the White House and a separate House committee that continues to have access. Trump emphasized his belief that all members of the committee should “go to jail” as he said he would not direct his appointees to arrest them and leave it up to their discretion whether or not to investigate them.
