Washington Members of Congress were heavily guarded Monday as they certified Trump’s 2024 election victory, guaranteeing that the first president to be charged with federal felonies will return to the White House in two weeks. This comes four years after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in support of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Trump will take the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States on January 20 by passing through the Lower West Tunnel, which saw some of the worst carnage during the attack on January 6, 2021. Trump has promised to pardon an unspecified number of Jan. 6 defendants when he takes office. Trump was charged with four felonies in connection with Jan. 6 and his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
However, even as the latter days of President Joe Biden’s tenure draw near, it is unclear exactly what Trump’s objectives are.
According to data released Monday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, a comprehensive investigation has resulted in more than 660 prison terms, with over 1,580 people charged and over 1,270 convicted.
The length of prison terms has varied, ranging from a few days to 22 years in federal prison, which was the punishment given to former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio following his conviction for seditious conspiracy. The majority of the hundreds of more Jan. 6 offenders who were found guilty of minor infractions like unauthorized parading were given probationary sentences.
Security at the Capitol was heightened in September when the federal government designated the Electoral College certification as a National Special Security Event. Despite the lack of significant protests on Monday, the government implemented stringent security measures that will continue as law enforcement agencies prepare for other forthcoming events, such as the burial services for former President Jimmy Carter and the inauguration of President Trump on January 20.
Workers at the Capitol were installing more layers of high fencing around the Capitol grounds, including on the west front, which Trump supporters occupied during the Capitol attack four years ago, on Saturday morning, around 36 hours before a snowfall struck Washington.
From referring to the Capitol breach as a “heinous attack” in 2021 to calling it a “day of love” last year, Trump, like many of his fellow Republicans, has made significant changes in his terminology since the Jan. 6 attack. Many conspiracy theories that Trump supporters on Capitol Hill have spread have contributed to the attempt to reinterpret the events of January 6.
The president-elect stated on “Meet the Press” last month that he would be moving swiftly to pardon the Jan. 6 defendants because they were subject to a very unpleasant procedure.
Trump has stated that if someone was insane or extremist, there might be some exceptions to his January 6 pardons; nonetheless, he did not rule out pardoning anyone who had confessed to assaulting police officers. Trump has stated that the great majority of the defendants from January 6 should not be imprisoned, but the Trump transition team has stated that pardons will be granted case by case.
Only eight pretrial defendants are still in custody in Washington, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, while the other defendants who were imprisoned on January 6 are all serving their conviction-related sentences.
It is unclear how ongoing proceedings against those accused of attacking law enforcement officials will be handled, even if it appears doubtful that more misdemeanor cases against low-level Jan. 6 defendants will be brought under a Trump administration.
More than 200 persons suspected of assaulting law enforcement or media personnel have been identified but not yet arrested, according to online sedition hunters who have already assisted the FBI in hundreds of Jan. 6 cases. They include over 60 individuals whose photos appear on the FBI’s website where they are listed as sought for assault.
During a ceremony with freshly elected Democratic lawmakers on Sunday, Biden urged them to talk honestly about the Capitol attack, which left over 140 police officers injured and some law enforcement officers dead.
Biden stated that it is now your responsibility to speak the truth, to keep in mind what transpired, and to prevent January 6th from being rewritten. One of the most difficult days in American history is now.
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