President-elect Donald Trump told Time magazine following his election victory that he was still thinking about pardoning his supporters who took part in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, but he was especially interested in those who were accused of non-violent offenses.
He stated, “I’m going to take it case by case, and if they weren’t violent, I think they’ve been severely punished.”
Trump instead took a much more expansive approach on his first day in office, pardoning the majority of the more than 1,500 individuals accused of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. Many people convicted of violent acts have been freed as a result of his activities.
Here are a few of them:
Tyler Bradley Dykes
In Bluffton, South Carolina, Dykes was found guilty of taking a police riot shield and wielding it against officers twice, earning him a 57-month sentence in federal prison. On two felony counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing officers, he entered a guilty plea.
Dykes refuted the prosecution’s accusation that he gave the Sieg Heil! (Hail to triumph!) gesture during the assault. Additionally, according to the prosecution, Dykes had taken part in a training for The Base, a neo-Nazi accelerationist organization, and had cited Adolf Hitler prior to the attack.
Dykes was serving a five-year sentence for his involvement in the racist Unite the Right demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 when he was hauled into federal custody after being expelled from the Marines for engaging in extremist activities.
Andrew Taake
Taake, of Houston, was given a sentence of just over six years for using a metal whip and bear spray to attack law enforcement. He entered a guilty plea to one count of assault, resisting, or obstructing officials with a deadly weapon on December 20, 2023. He was arrested as a result of a sting operation that a woman on the dating app Bumble conducted following the attack on January 6. Investigators received information from Taake and other Jan. 6 participants about their actions during the incident.
At the time of the attack, Taake was on pretrial release after being charged with soliciting a minor. According to prosecutors, he was one of the first people to enter the Capitol’s restricted perimeter and rush West Plaza.
Christopher Quaglin
Quaglin was given a 12-year sentence in federal prison after federal prosecutors claimed he was one of the most violent rioters and had savagely attacked multiple cops.
He was convicted on 14 crimes on July 10, 2023, including two misdemeanors and 12 felonies.
According to prosecutors’ sentencing brief, Quaglin stood directly in front of cops on at least a dozen occasions while he yelled at them, shoved them with his outstretched arms, punched, swatted, and slapped them, pushed bike racks into them, and even choked one of them to the ground.
Prosecutors said that Quaglin posted on social media that he went to Washington to fight against a despotic regime in what he saw as a CIVIL WAR! and that he planned to expose the bosses of the members of Congress.
North Brunswick, New Jersey resident Quaglin retaliated against Trevor McFadden, the U.S. district judge who convicted him and whom Trump appointed in 2017.
During his sentence, Quaglin made a long statement to McFadden, saying, “You’re Trump’s worst mistake of 2016.”
Quaglin was informed by McFadden that he had misrepresented the incident as largely nonviolent.
“That day, you were anything but calm,” he added. You pose a threat to our community.
Taylor James Johnatakis
In November 2023, Kingston, Washington resident Johnatakis was found guilty of three felonies: assaulting officers, causing civil unrest, and obstructing an official proceeding. During his trial, Johnatakis represented himself and stated that he did not believe he was bound by US law.
Additionally, he was found guilty of four misdemeanors: entering and staying in a restricted building or area, engaging in disruptive and disorderly behavior within a restricted building or area, using physical force within a restricted building or area, and performing an act of physical violence on the property of any Capitol building. He received a seven-year sentence in federal prison.
According to the prosecution, he planned a violent attack on a line of police officers guarding the Capitol, and the video demonstrates that he attacked the officers directly with a metal barricade and grabbed one officer to stop him from defending himself from other rioters who were attacking, causing that officer to be physically hurt.
Johnatakis said on social media prior to the attack that what the British did to Washington, D.C., would be insignificant and that he was traveling there to CHANGE the course of history by using the hashtag #stopthesteal.
David Dempsey
Prosecutors said Dempsey was one of the most violent rioters, and he was given one of the harshest punishments: 20 years in prison. In August 2021, he was detained by the FBI. On the morning of January 6, he and others journeyed from his home in Santa Ana, California, to Washington, where they attended the Stop the Steal event at the Ellipse.
Later that day, Dempsey labeled other Democratic lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi, Obama, Clinton, and Jerry Nadler, “pieces of garbage” and other derogatory terms, according to the prosecution.
Prosecutors claimed that Dempsey and other individuals headed toward the Capitol and traveled to the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, the scene of some of the bloodiest assaults on law enforcement. Prosecutors added that he joined the mob and pushed at a line of police guards protecting the tunnel.
Prosecutors said that Dempsey used his hands, feet, flag poles, crutches, pepper spray, broken furniture, and anything else he could get his hands on as weapons against officers, and that he climbed over other rioters like human scaffolding.
Dempsey entered a guilty plea to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing officers with a lethal or dangerous weapon on January 4, 2024, over three years later.
According to the prosecution, Dempsey had a noteworthy record of arrests and convictions. He received a two-year suspended sentence in 2019 for using bear spray to attack anti-Trump demonstrators. Additionally, he used a skateboard to attack a counterprotester in 2019, attacked another person at a political demonstration the following year, and struck someone with a metal bat at a protest in 2020.
Daniel Rodriguez
Rodriguez, a resident of Fontana, California, repeatedly stabbed Washington Police Officer Michael Fanone in the neck with a stun gun. One of the most outspoken opponents of the rioters has been Fanone.
Rodriguez went to Washington with other Trump fans who were part of the PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang, a Telegram group.He was the group’s administrator, according to the prosecution.
The night before the incident on January 6, Rodriguez posted in a MAGA Gang Telegram chat, “There will be blood.” Greetings from the revolution.
He would later head to the Ellipse for Trump’s event. Rodriguez joined the battle in the Lower West Tunnel of the Capitol and attacked Fanone on January 6. Later, in the Telegram discussion, he boasted about what he had done, writing: “Tazzed the f— out of the blue, got away, and did so much f—ing s— rn [right now].”
In February 2023, he entered a guilty plea to felony conspiracy, tampering with records or proceedings, obstruction of an official proceeding, and causing bodily harm to officers by using a lethal or dangerous weapon. He received a 12-year prison sentence.
In a long 20-minute speech before his sentencing, Rodriguez stated that he genuinely believed a civil war was about to break out and that the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were established because police were standing down all around the nation. Although he admitted what he had done to Fanone, he offered no apology.
Fanone stated, in part, prior to his sentencing: The attacks on me and my family by Donald Trump supporters and the right-wing media have eroded any empathy or compassion I had for those who besieged our Capitol, whose actions I believed were at least partially motivated by their leader, Donald Trump, and his lies.
Ryan Nichols
After using pepper spray to attack officers, Nichols, of Longview, Texas, urged for more violence in his hotel room on January 6.
On camera, Nichols made a third-person confession. On January 18, 2021, he was taken into custody in Texas.
In November 2023, he entered a guilty plea to one felony count of assaulting officers while they were on duty and obstruction of an official proceeding.
He received a prison term exceeding five years.Before he participated in the assault, Nichols stated on camera that elected officials who voted to confirm Joe Biden’s victory would be lynched by the mob.
In the video, Ryan Nichols marched to the Capitol and declared, “We’re going to drag your f—ing a– through the streets if you voted for f—ing treason.”
Nichols boasted about his actions on Facebook and advocated for more violence after he was seen on camera spraying officers inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel with a massive chemical weapon canister.
In a video that prosecutors have mentioned, Ryan Nichols stated, “If you want to know where I stand, I stand for violence.”
Citing Nichols’ frequent declarations that he was willing to die for his cause, the prosecution requested an 83-month term.
After the attack, Nichols was caught on camera saying, “I will f—ing die for this.” But before I do that, I plan on making other people die first, for their country, if it gets down to that.
At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said that while Nichols apology at his sentencing hearing appeared to be sincere, he made very rigorous comments on tape about his desire for future violence.