Yep, pardons working perfectly. Political prisoners freed. I was a beautiful day.
Throughout his 2024 campaign for president, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to give pardons to his supporters who had been criminally charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But up until the moment he reentered the Oval Office on Monday night, his exact plans remained vague. Even his Vice President, JD Vance, appeared to be unaware of the new president's plan as recently as Jan. 12.
Trump supporters pull on a metal police barrier while police officers hold on to it on Jan. 6, 2021, outside the U.S. Capitol.
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Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell tears up during a hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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In the end, Trump granted clemency to every defendant accused of committing crimes that day, including those convicted of brutal assaults on police officers.
More than 1,500 people who had been charged in connection with the attack, received a "full, complete and unconditional pardon."
14 people — all of whom were linked to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, extremist groups that planned elements of the attack — received commutations. While those defendants' felony convictions will stand, Trump cleared the path for their imminent release from prison. Meanwhile, in federal court in Washington, D.C., Trump's new appointee at the Justice Department began filing motions to dismiss ongoing cases related to Jan. 6.