Washington According to the mother of a rioter who was slain during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, President-elect Donald Trump called her this week and told the defendants in the Jan. 6 incident that he loved them and advised them to “keep their chins up.”
At a nightly vigil outside the D.C. jail on Wednesday in support of the Jan. 6 defendants, Ashli Babbit’s mother, Micki Witthoeft, said that Trump had called her while she was in the back of an Uber with two other Jan. 6 defendant supporters, returning from placing flowers in her daughter’s honor.
Witthoeft claims that when Trump was asked if he had a message for the defendants on January 6, he responded, “Tell them I love them, to keep their chins up.”
“I know that he is still thinking about these guys, and I have a feeling it is going to be a happy day for us,” Witthoeft said on January 20, the day Trump took the oath of office.
A request for comment from the Trump transition team was not answered. However, Trump has already supported the Jan. 6 defendants financially, phoned Witthoeft and into the vigil, and pledged to pardon an unspecified number of them when he took office.
“We have a lot to look forward to on Jan. 20, and God Bless America,” Witthoeft stated. “Trump town, baby!”
Trump has promised to pardon several of the more than 1,270 prisoners found guilty on Jan. 6 charges that range from seditious conspiracy to unauthorized parading. Trump would have the chance to pardon hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants without having much of an impact outside of the message that such an action would send because there are over 700 defendants who have either already served their time or were never given any jail or prison time in the first place.
The lawyer for former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy on January 6 and is currently serving the longest sentence—22 years—asked Trump for a complete pardon this week.
Even though over 1,580 suspects have already been taken into custody, it still only represents almost half of the defendants who could have been prosecuted with assaulting law enforcement outside the Capitol or entering the building.
Online sedition hunters who have helped the FBI in hundreds of charges against Jan. 6 rioters have discovered over 200 persons suspected of assaulting law enforcement officials, in addition to those already charged. It’s uncertain if the Trump administration will permit investigations into those who are accused of assaulting law enforcement officials on January 6, 2021, to continue, even if the statute of limitations for offenses committed on that day doesn’t expire until early 2026.