The January 6th Pardons Are Unacceptable
The January 6th rioters are terrorists and they deserve to be treated as such, but Donald Trump wiped away their crimes.
So, it is official. Donald Trump is the President of the United States, and from the beginning, he has demonstrated that he has no respect for the truth or the rule of law. And while nobody should be surprised by this lack of moral character, it should outrage everybody just how far the current President is willing to go, especially considering he just pardoned the insurrectionists on January 6th.
Pardoning the January 6 Insurrectionists
While this one was expected, the sheer brazenness of who was pardoned is still a demonstration of how blatantly partisan Trump’s moves are going to be. Earlier this Tuesday, the newly-established Trump administration announced that it would pardon over 1,000 people who were charged in connection with the January 6th attack, including convicted leaders involved in said attack. Reporting on the pardons, CNN explained:
President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned more than 1,000 people charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, and commuted the sentences of leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
“These are the hostages,” Trump said from the Oval Office, referring to the convicted and charged defendants. “Approximately 1,500 for a pardon – full pardon.”
The commutations cover the sentences for 14 far-right extremists from the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were convicted or charged with seditious conspiracy.
With the pardons, Trump has granted full clemency to hundreds of people already convicted of felony crimes like assaulting police and destroying property as part of the effort to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
The “full, complete and unconditional” pardons extend to people who were convicted of some of the worst crimes committed the day of the Capitol attack.
That group includes individuals like Julian Khater, who assaulted US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick and later pled guilty to assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon; Devlyn Thompson, who hit a police officer with a metal baton; and Robert Palmer, a Florida man who attacked police with a fire extinguisher, a wooden plank and a pole.
The decision to pardon the insurrectionists is one thing, but it is another thing entirely to pardon individuals who assaulted police officers who were simply doing their jobs defending the Capitol from a mob. These men and women, who suffered extensively through the attack, are now at risk.
Former Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone was infamously beaten and tased multiple times during the attack, in addition to being dragged by the capitol rioters from his unit. As a result of his injuries, Fanone suffered a traumatic brain injury and a heart attack.
After the pardons were announced, one of the rioters and far-right founder of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, celebrated the pardons, arguing that the attack was an act of entrapment by the officers.
“Most of them went inside, they walked through doors that were already opened by somebody else. They were not told that they were tress passing…..basically, it was entrapment.”
-Stewart Rhodes after his release from his prison.
It is worth noting that Rhodes was one of the Oath Keepers who was convicted of Seditious Conspiracy for his actions on January 6th, 2021. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Despite this, Trump pardoned him.
In reaction to Rhodes’ statement, Fanone responded on CNN, saying: “"This is what I'd say to Stewart Rhodes: Go f**k yourself.”
While I normally wouldn’t endorse such language here, there can only be one honest reaction to this absurd justification of a terrorist attack on the United States Capitol. These terrorists deserve every bit of scorn that this country can muster. They attacked officers whose sole crime was defending the Constitution of the United States and the peaceful transfer of power. Donald Trump allowed them to go free to attack our fellow Americans again.