Nearly 500 people have been sentenced to incarceration over the Jan. 6 riot, and prosecutors have secured more than 950 convictions.
Former President Donald Trump said Monday that one of his first acts as president if he wins in November would be to “free” those charged and convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
It appeared to be the first time that he has definitively referred to releasing the Jan. 6 defendants as a Day One priority.
A spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s campaign, Sarafina Chitika, said in a statement in response to Trump’s comments that the former president “has shown he’ll do whatever it takes to hold on to power — including excusing and encouraging political violence.”
I was surprised he didn’t pardon them before he begrudgingly left office.
He could have, but chose to not do so.
His advisors probably wouldn’t let him. I don’t think he really expected to win the first time, so he had to fill his staff out with career Republicans who weren’t so high on the Insurrection thing. He won’t make that mistake again . All the advisors in the second Trump administraton will owe their loyalty to him, exclusively.
Then he couldn’t have made empty promises to do it “soon”