As soon as he takes office, President-elect Donald Trump stated that he hopes to pardon his supporters who were part in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, claiming that those who are currently behind bars are living in hell.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, Trump made the remarks, which were the most extensive he has made since winning the election. In addition, he cautioned that some members of the House committee that looked into the Jan. 6 attack ought to be imprisoned and stated that he would not try to turn the Justice Department against his political opponents.
Trump promised to provide legal relief to the Jan. 6 rioters on his first day in office, claiming they had been subjected to a harsh system.
I will be behaving in a hurry. They’ve been imprisoned for years, and they’re in a filthy, nasty environment that shouldn’t even be permitted to remain open, Trump stated on the first day of their incarceration.
Trump mentioned some refuted allegations that law enforcement agents and anti-Trump groups infiltrated the crowd and stated that there might be some exceptions to his pardons if someone was insane or extremist.
In the attack, at least 1,572 individuals have been charged, and over 1,251 have been found guilty or entered guilty pleas. At least 645 of those individuals have received sentences that range from a few days to 22 years in federal custody. There are over 250 persons in custody, the majority of them are serving sentences following convictions. On a federal judge’s order, a few are being detained in pretrial custody.
Even when Welker questioned Trump about those who had confessed to assaulting police officers, he did not rule out pardoning those who had entered guilty pleas.
Trump stated that they had no other option.
When questioned about the more than 900 other individuals who entered guilty pleas in relation to the incident but were not charged with assaulting officers, Trump implied that they had been unfairly coerced into doing so.
I am familiar with the system. According to Trump, the system is extremely corrupt. A man is told that he will either spend two years or thirty years in prison. And these men, whose entire lives have been ruined, are searching. They have been demolished over the past two years. However, the system is quite unpleasant.
In the extensive Jan. 6 inquiry, which included rioters caught on camera attacking officers and individuals who confessed under oath that they had done so, charges have ranged from unlawful parading to seditious conspiracy. One of the defendants in custody is accused of firing gunshots into the air during the attack, another was arrested outside the residence of former President Barack Obama after Trump shared a screenshot that included the address, and Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Another defendant was recently found guilty of plotting to kill the FBI special agents who looked into him.
Although he has stated that he will appoint Pam Bondi as attorney general, Trump stated that he would not order her to look into special counsel Jack Smith, who filed two federal lawsuits against Trump that were later dropped following the election. Trump stated he believes Smith is highly corrupt and labeled him insane. In the end, he stated that he would let Bondi make those choices and that he would not order her to bring charges against Smith.
Trump stated, “I want her to do what she wants to do.” I will not give her instructions.
Trump asserted that the House Jan. 6 committee members had fabricated testimony and ruined an entire year and a half of it.
He singled out Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chaired the committee, and Republican Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a strong Trump critic who departed Congress, claiming that they had committed a serious felony and destroyed the evidence gathered during their probe.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Cheney claimed that Trump “lied about the January 6th Select Committee” when he suggested that committee members “should go to jail.”
“There is no conceivably appropriate factual or constitutional basis for what Donald Trump is suggesting a Justice Department investigation of the work of a congressional committee and any lawyer who attempts to pursue that course would quickly find themselves engaged in sanctionable conduct,” Cheney stated.
“In the end, Congress should require that all that material be publicly released so all Americans can see Donald Trump for who he genuinely is and fully understand his role in this terrible period in our nation’s history,” Cheney said, calling for the release of the materials that Smith had collected during his investigation.
Transcripts and recordings of some of the more than 1,000 witness interviews have been saved by the committee and made available online. To make sure that particular information wasn’t unlawfully disseminated, some interviews that contained sensitive and private information were forwarded to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for evaluation. The White House and another House committee still have access to the transcripts, which are still in the agency’s possession.
Regarding the committee members, Trump stated, “Honestly, they should go to jail,” stating that he would not order his appointees to make arrests.
Trump s view of DOJ, FBI
Trump’s views on the FBI and Justice Department are examined in detail in the interview.
After a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, Trump—who was the first former president to be convicted of a crime and was involved in four distinct criminal cases—expressed his deepest complaints with the legal system but maintained that he was looking to the future.
When asked if he would target outgoing President Joe Biden, he responded, “I’m not looking to go back into the past.” My goal is to see our nation prosper. Success will be the means of retaliation.
Although Trump had previously stated that he would designate a special prosecutor to look into Biden, he stated that he had no plans to do so unless he discovered something that seemed reasonable and that any such action would be up to Pam Bondi and, to a lesser extent, his choice for FBI director, Kash Patel.
In order for Patel to succeed him, FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Republican who Trump appointed during his first term after firing James Comey, would have to step down or be fired. Only one FBI director, Robert Mueller, who eventually served 12 years and later became the special counsel looking into Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian meddling in that election, made it that long. FBI directors are appointed to 10-year terms under a post-Watergate reform.
In reference to the search of his Mar-a-Lago complex in Florida during the investigation into Trump’s handling of secret papers, which turned up boxes of data in the club, including some kept in a lavatory, Trump claimed he wasn’t happy with Wray because he had invaded his house.
For it, I’m suing the nation. Trump said that he invaded Mar-a-Lago. Crime is at an all-time high, and I’m really upset with what he’s done. (Data from law enforcement indicates a historic decline in crime.) Trump threatened to fire Wray if he didn’t step down.
When questioned about a list of 60 people that Patel claimed were part of the so-called deep state in his book, Trump stated that if confirmed, Patel would act in accordance with his moral convictions and that he believed Patel would be required to look into whether a politician was dishonest, corrupt, or crooked.
The impending administration transition has not gone overlooked, even though Trump is still more than 40 days away from taking office and Justice Department prosecutors are still pursuing prosecutions against individual rioters.
Before giving a Jan. 6 defendant a one-year jail term on Friday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was chosen by President Ronald Reagan, emphasized the value of justice, truth, and law and order. Lamberth ordered Philip Grillo to be arrested when he handed down the punishment.
Grillo added, “Trump is going to forgive me,” as he took off his belt and gave up.
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