At a campaign event shortly before the November election, President Trump gave an answer that offers the best explanation for the pardons he announced on Monday. Asked at a Univision town hall about the riot by his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, he said, “There were no guns down there. We didn’t have guns.”
For starters, the statement was false; according to the Justice Department, at least 180 people have been “charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon,” including guns, knives, batons, baseball bats and chemical sprays. But it’s the pronoun — “we” — that gives Mr. Trump’s game away. By pardoning the rioters, he was, in every real sense, pardoning himself.
The president repeatedly promised during the campaign that he would pardon what he called the “J6 hostages,” but he was vague about the details. It has become clear that Mr. Trump decided to go big. He pardoned a vast majority of the 1,600 who were arrested, including those who assaulted police officers. (About 140 police officers were injured during the riot.) Further, Mr. Trump ordered all pending cases, including those for defendants charged with violent crimes, to be dismissed.
In simple terms, this means that in a few days, there will be no one in prison or facing any sort of criminal penalty for their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some, including Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys who was pardoned after being sentenced to 22 years for seditious conspiracy, have already been released from their sentences.
The cases against them now disappear, as if they had never been brought, and the consequences of those convictions vanish as well. Former convicts, including those who assaulted police officers, will now have no restrictions on their right to purchase firearms; they will be free to bring guns to their next confrontation with authorities.
The pardon recipients now join Mr. Trump himself as former Jan. 6 defendants who are in the clear for their actions on that day (After his victory in November, the Justice Department dropped its prosecution of him for conspiracy to overturn his 2020 loss by putting forth phony slates of electors on Jan. 6.)