Senator Shelley Moore Capito says she had thought President Donald Trump would issue pardons to people who were prosecuted in relation to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, on a case by case basis.
Instead, on the first day of Trump’s return to office, the president issued a broad pardon for more than 1,500 defendants, including some who were charged and convicted of crimes against police officers.
The order included commutations of the sentences of some specific defendants to the time they had already served through Jan. 20, 2025, the day Trump swore the oath of office again.
Former leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys militia groups, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department, both were released from prison hours after Trump signed the clemency order.
Stewart Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, was serving an 18-year prison sentence, and Enrique Tarrio, of Miami, was serving a 22-year sentence.
“I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive,” Trump told national reporters this week.
About nine defendants with West Virginia connections were affected by the pardons. Most either had served incarceration time of a few weeks or months already — or were still moving through the federal court system but not currently jailed.
The mob storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 disrupted the constitutional duty of counting Electoral College votes and prompted the evacuations of representatives, senators and then-Vice President Mike Pence. One woman was fatally shot while trying to climb into the chambers, three others died from “medical emergencies” and more than 100 police officers were injured.
Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,500 people were charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 560 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony.
Trump’s order stated, “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”
Those pardons came just a day after outgoing President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons for public figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — plus pardons for five members of his own family.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement.
Capito discussed the use of pardon power Wednesday on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
“You know the President has a pardon prerogative himself. That is a purely executive authority. You saw former President Biden now really expand that authority,” Capito said. The president, this president, has pardoned all the January Six (defendants). I thought he was going to be doing more of a targeted pardoning.
“And I’ve read where some of the police officers here at the Capitol, police, their families feel that they’ve been dealt an injustice, and I understand why they feel that way. Any violence against a police officer or an officer of the law, I think needs to be put in a different category.”
Capito concluded, “So, you know, it’s his prerogative. He did it, and I think we just need to move on.”
Amanda Carpenter, a West Virginian who is an editor for Protect Democracy, a national organization aimed at maintaining the rule of law, described the Jan. 6 pardons as a signal embracing political violence.
A recent YouGov poll for Protect Democracy showed about three-quarters of Americans opposed pardons for people convicted of using a deadly or dangerous weapon at the Capitol or for those convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers
More than half of the poll respondents agreed that pardoning people who took part in political violence will encourage more of the same.
“Trump’s pardons for violent criminals creates a license for more political violence to advance his aims,” Carpenter said. “The pardons don’t leave January 6 in the past, it increases the likelihood of more political violence on Trump’s behalf in the future.”