“THis is a “Big one,” Donald Trump said when he signed a pardon order for nearly 1,600 rioters on Jan. 6 just hours after being sworn in. By evening Enrique Tarrio, leader Proud boysa right-wing extremist group, was serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison for engineering the attack on the Capitol, and was in a holding cell in Louisiana awaiting release. In a phone call with The Economist That night, his mother was thrilled that her son would return home to Miami within days.
The amnesty turned out to be more comprehensive than the beneficiaries expected. “This is a lot better than I could have hoped for,” says John Kinsman, the Proud Boy who spent four years in prison. “Never in a million years” would Trump release every “hostage” on January 6th. All but 14 of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia leaders who stormed the Capitol have been granted full pardons. Their pardons lift penalties that typically arise from felony convictions, such as restrictions on purchasing weapons, visiting certain foreign countries, and voting in some states. Those who were not pardoned had their sentences commuted. Trump said that in those cases, his team needs to do “more research.”
The outcome seemed surprising because J.D. Vance, the current vice president, last week told viewers on Fox News: “If you committed acts of violence that day, obviously you should not be pardoned.” Yet many were. Pam BondiMr. Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Justice (DSC), echoed Mr. Vance’s restraint, saying she planned to look into the perpetrators of the January 6 crimes on a “case-by-case” basis. The fact that Trump overruled these decisions suggests that the scope of his final decision was his own idea. When asked why he ignored Vance’s advice, Trump said those incarcerated had served enough time and their lives had been turned upside down.
To some profession DSC Lawyers who brought the cases, Trump’s actions reinforce their belief that on January 6 he sought to encourage his supporters to ransack the Capitol. “This is one of the most frank admissions that what happened that day was what he intended,” says one senior official. DSC lawyer. It is indeed plausible to view the pardon as an endorsement of the mob violence that occurred. In a summary of his now-dismissed case published on January 7, Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating Trump for his role in the Capitol attack, wrote that his office had sufficient evidence to “obtain and sustain a conviction.” But Trump is now certain that the meaning of the January 6th attack will be a matter of long-term dispute. To his ardent followers, The pardon corrects the injustice caused by the transgressions of his enemies, including Mr. Smith.
There is no doubt that the hundreds of people who punched police, smashed windows and stormed barricades will soon return home. Although many of them are ordinary doctors and businessmen, at least 200 have pledged allegiance to a militia-like group. In interviews conducted by Proud Boys across America, they say prison time has weakened their movement — and watchdog groups like Miami Anti-Fascism agree that their power has been “severely diminished.”
However, political violence, both on the left and the right, has soared since 2021; There were two isolated attempts on Mr. Trump’s life during the election campaign. According to an analysis conducted by Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, DSC He prosecuted 26 threats against members of Congress between 2022 and 2023. However, the Trump administration may not go after domestic extremists as aggressively as the Joe Biden administration did.
Kimberly Weihl, a law professor who wrote a book on the pardon power, says there is some precedent for a president pardoning citizens who attacked the U.S. government with physical force. Perhaps the closest similarity is Andrew Johnson’s decision to grant amnesty to thousands of Confederate soldiers after the Civil War. But he forced them to swear loyalty to the country and free their slaves as a condition of their release, requiring them to admit defeat in the greatest cause they fought for. Then as now, tolerance exacerbated divisions in the nation. ■
