It Is Happening Every Day, Every Where
President Trump pardoned men who violently attacked police officers on Jan. 6 along with nearly 1,600 other people who had been charged in connection with the riot. But his grant of clemency did not erase the video evidence of their crimes.
Libertarian and crypto allies of Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for distributing drugs on his Silk Road website, leveraged President Trump’s desire for political support to secure his release.
While dismissing cases, judges who have overseen the prosecutions made clear that the orders did nothing to change the reality of the attack on the Capitol.
Pamela Hemphill, 71, of Boise, Idaho, who served 60 days in prison, said it would be “an insult to the Capitol Police” if she accepted the pardon.
Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers asserted that they wanted President Trump to seek revenge on their behalf for being prosecuted in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.
It is unclear how much is left in Washington to restrain him.
More than 150 officers from the Capitol Police and the D.C. police were injured when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol four years ago.
Two prominent far-right extremists with central roles in the Capitol attack, Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers militia, have been set free.
President Trump’s pardons in the Jan. 6 case abruptly ended the most complex investigation in U.S. history. It also raised questions about what he will do next against a department he has said is full of his enemies.
Dozens of people with ties to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol gathered outside the detention facility in Washington to celebrate Trump’s pardons of those convicted of crimes that day.