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, had served three years of a 22-year sentence in federal prison for planning the attack on the Capitol, and was in a holding cell in Louisiana awaiting release. Back in Miami, Tarrio says a full pardon is what he expected “from day one after the election.”
The plans he made for life after liberation are yet to begin. His first day home is a “zen moment” before he finds out what’s next for him and the Proud Boys. To those who say the pardon represents a whitewash of what happened on Jan. 6, Mr. Tarrio counters that it was an injustice to imprison him in the first place. “I understand how they play, you remove the opponent’s pieces from the board,” he says. “And I’m ready to play that game, right? But we’re not there yet.” He doesn’t “advocate it,” but it means his team can also lock people up.
Trump’s pardon was more comprehensive than the recipients 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. The fact that Trump overruled these decisions suggests that the scope of his final decision was his own idea. Trump said the prisoners had served enough time.
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 who investigated Trump’s role, 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. For many of the president’s supporters, a pardon corrects the injustice created by the transgressions of Trump’s enemies.
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 right, has increased 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. ■
