WASHINGTON — As his inauguration drew near, President Donald Trump made the last-minute decision to pardon almost everyone accused of involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which shocked some of his followers and aides.
One member of Trump’s transition team told NBC News that he is who he is. Sometimes expectations are set as high as is reasonable, and other times they shift rapidly.
The decision to issue a broad pardon was decided just days before the inauguration, according to two individuals who worked on Trump’s transition. They were given anonymity to disclose specifics of private conversations, just like the other people interviewed for this report.
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Trump had been vague about his plans to deal with those found guilty of violent crimes, such as the 169 individuals who pled guilty to attacking police officers, even though he had long promised pardons for the majority of those convicted of non-violent crimes on January 6.
Trump made the decision to go as far as he could, commuting the sentences of 14 people and pardoning around 1,500 others.
Many were taken aback by the pardons, largely since Trump and Vice President JD Vance had lately hinted that he would adopt a more drastic strategy.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., a Trump supporter who was present at Monday’s inauguration, stated in an interview, “I don’t know what the staff work was like on that.”
Gingrich added that it is easier to defend and support the position of drawing a line that would have prevented pardons for those who attacked cops. After doing those things, you have to ask yourself if you really want to put individuals back on the streets who haven’t paid their dues.
Requests for response from the White House were not answered.
At a press conference on Tuesday night, Trump justified his choice. When NBC News asked Trump if he had commuted or pardoned a man who had stabbed a police officer in the neck with a stun gun during the attack, he initially wasn’t sure.
The president said, “We’ll look at everything,” in response to being informed that it was a pardon. However, I can state that killers are not even prosecuted in modern times. There are killings all over that aren’t charged.
He went on to say, “These individuals have already served years in prison, and they served them viciously.” It’s a horrible prison. It has been awful. It’s cruel. It’s been an awful, awful thing.
Last year, Trump called the detainees hostages and played a song by the J6 Choir, a group of inmates, at his rallies as part of his campaign pledge to free the Jan. 6 participants. However, Trump and his campaign team occasionally pledged to be more nuanced in their decision-making on who would be eligible for pardons, suggesting that violence might be a deciding factor.
In December, Trump told Time magazine, “I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished.” And the response is, “Yeah, I will look to see if there are any that were truly out of control.”
In a more straightforward appearance on Fox News Sunday on January 12, Vance stated, “Obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned if you committed violence on that day.”
There will always be a lot of gray area in how the pardons are carried out because of the case-by-case approach that Trump and Vance discussed, according to Vance press secretary Taylor Van Kirk on Tuesday.
“President Trump correctly decided to grant a broad pardon to all wrongfully convicted of January 6 protesters due to the corrupt process of these prosecutions,” Van Kirk wrote to NBC News.
Van Kirk went on to say that the exiting administration’s use of presidential pardons for Biden family members is much more worthy of further media attention, citing former President Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons before he left office on Monday.
Speaking to Vance about the matter, a Republican close to the Trump administration cited the vice president’s lengthy public support for the Jan. 6 defendants, pointing out that as a 2022 Senate candidate, he assisted in raising funds for them and their families.
According to this individual, he has been supporting these individuals for at least two and a half years. Nothing changed, in my opinion. He has consistently advocated for mass commutes since the outset, but he has also been fairly clear that there is a gray area.
One of the transition officials told NBC News that as soon as Trump decided to be lenient, Vance and the rest of the fledgling administration immediately agreed. According to another person acquainted with his participation, Vance advocated for widespread pardons and commutations behind the scenes.
The second transition official replied to NBC News, “Everyone has been clear that we were looking at all the cases and the ultimate decision, which the Vice President ended up being a driving force behind, was more encompassing action.” Given how politicized and flawed the process was, the president ultimately spoke out in favor of mercy.
There is little question that Trump would take broad action early in his term, according to Alex Bruesewitz, a Republican political consultant with extensive ties to the Trump universe who was subpoenaed to testify before the House’s Jan. 6th committee.
He claimed that it was the proper course of action. The procedure was the penalty, despite what some left-wingers may think.
Trump’s MAGA political base, many of whom flocked to Washington in recent days for his inauguration, also strongly supported the action.
Brett Thomas, 52, said he was crying when he heard the president declare that he would pardon the offenders from January 6 at Trump’s rally at Capital One Arena on Monday.
On January 6, Thomas, the president of New Orleans’ Rhino Web Studios, was at the Capitol, but he did not enter because his wife called and instructed him to return to his hotel, he claimed.
He said he does perceive a distinction between those who fought with the police that day and those who simply marched into the Capitol, even if he supported Trump’s choice. Nevertheless, he feels that they were all sufficiently punished.
According to Thomas, there must be repercussions if there is evidence that you assaulted a police officer. No, that is their punishment if they have been incarcerated for years. And in my opinion, time was served.
Mike Davis, a Trump ally and legal adviser who had publicly lobbied the president to go big on pardons, said for Trump, he felt something of a kindred spirit with his supporters who were Jan. 6 prisoners because he had also been prosecuted by the government.
He claimed that Trump has been the victim of Joe Biden’s militarized and politicized justice department. However, Trump has the financial means to weather it because he is a billionaire and former president. These defendants from January 6th don’t.
Davis also said that Biden s own pardons on his way out of office which includedmembers of his familyandcommuted the death sentencesof 37 federal inmates on death row to life in prison, gave Trump any political cover he might need to use the pardon power as he saw fit.
According to Davis, Joe Biden pardoned his family. He freed child rapists and murderers from death row, and he pardoned a monster who murdered two FBI agents, Davis said, referring toNative American activist Leonard Peltier, who has long maintained his innocence and had his life sentence commuted. I don t want to see Democrats fake tears about Trump s pardons.
He went on to say, “They can go to hell.”
The Trump decision, though, is not without tense criticism.Michael Fanone, the former police officer who had the stun gun driven into his neck and was among those badly injured during the Jan. 6 attacks, told NBC News the pardons were outrageous but shouldn t come as a surprise to any American.
This nation no longer upholds the rule of law. We are now in the age of government lawlessness, Fanone said.
Fanone suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury as a result of the attack and was among the officers who testified before the House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Biden also issuedpre-emptive pardons to committee members, which include current and former members of Congress, out of fear Trump would try to go after them when he returned to office.
Current and former prosecutors alsosharply criticized Trump s pardons, with one person who worked on the Jan. 6 cases calling them appalling.
While some Republican lawmakers cheered Trump s actions,a number of Republican senatorswere less enthusiastic, outright saying they disagreed or simply refusing to embrace them.
I just can t agree, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. who was photographedpumping his fistat Trump supporters before they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 said hewould not have pardonedpeople who committed violent offenses but noted that Trump keeps his campaign promises.