In the past few weeks, the Justice Department under President Trump has taken an expansive view of the pardons he issued to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Department officials, after initially concluding that the pardons covered only crimes that were committed at the Capitol on the day of the attack, have now decided that Mr. Trump’s mercy should also extend to other offenses — like possessing illegal firearms — that were uncovered later and in different places as federal agents investigated suspects for their roles in the events of Jan. 6.
On Thursday evening, however, a federal judge in Washington issued an order strongly pushing back on the Justice Department’s broader interpretation of Mr. Trump’s clemency decree.
The judge, Dabney L. Friedrich, said the pardons should cover only crimes that were directly related to the Capitol attack and chided the department for the way it had “abruptly reversed its position” on the issue “with virtually no explanation.”
“President Trump alone has the constitutional authority to pardon,” Judge Friedrich wrote. “He still may do so. But this court cannot — it is duty bound to enforce the presidential pardon as written.”
Judge Friedrich’s order was the latest effort by the federal bench in Washington to criticize the Justice Department for how it has handled Mr. Trump’s sweeping reprieves. In January, days after the pardons were issued, several of the judge’s colleagues handed down fiery decisions, saying that while Mr. Trump’s decree was legally viable, it could not erase what happened on the ground on Jan. 6.