President Trump pardoned on Monday nearly all of the 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, hours after outgoing President Joe Biden immunized from prosecution family members and other potential targets of the incoming administration.
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump’s sweeping clemency delivered on his polarizing campaign pledge to pardon supporters who joined in what federal judges and prosecutors have called an attack on American democracy.
The new president made the announcement after arriving at the White House, effectively wiping away four years of prosecutions, including more than 1,100 convictions in what Justice Department officials have described as the largest investigation in U.S. history.
🚨BREAKING: President Trump has officially signed a pardon for 1,500 J6 prisoners.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 21, 2025
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While pardoning virtually all of those charged, Trump commuted the sentences of more than a dozen others.
“They’ve been treated very unfairly,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “The judges have been absolutely brutal. The prosecutors have been brutal.”
“I see murderers from this country get two years, one year, and maybe no time, but they’ve already been in jail for a long time,” he said.
Among the recipients of clemency from Trump were leaders of far-right groups, including the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who had been found guilty of seditious conspiracy and other offenses in connection with the Capitol attack.
Trump pardoned former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced in 2023 to 22 years in prison, and commuted the sentence of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was ordered to spend 18 years behind bars for plotting to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
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