Pardon on the first day? Capitol strikers in jail already toasting Trump's victory
Imprisoned and convicted supporters of the former and future president are counting down the days until his inauguration. He has already put a pardon on the table on the first day.
10.11.2024, 00:00
10.11.2024, 00:08
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- In the run-up to his re-election, Trump has often spoken of wanting to pardon convicted Capitol offenders.
- They are already celebrating Donald Trump's re-election as US President.
- Five people lost their lives in the storming of the US Capitol and more than 100 police officers were injured.
- More than 1,500 people were charged for the violence on January 6 and hundreds were convicted.
Celebrating Donald Trump's election victory with a bottle of Trump-branded champagne: the man from Florida who posed in front of the lectern of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, after the storming of the Capitol in January 2021. He now shared his jubilation on social media. "You're all in trouble," is his message to politicians and the judiciary, before taking another swig from the bottle.
Like him, many of the rioters who violently invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021 are jubilant. Incited by Trump's claims that his election victory had been stolen from him, a mob stormed the building. The attackers vandalized offices and cornered members of parliament.
1500 people charged
Five people lost their lives and more than 100 policemen and policewomen were injured. It was the day on which Congress was due to formally confirm Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.
More than 1,500 people were indicted for the violence on January 6, hundreds were convicted. Former President Trump, on the other hand, has praised the rioters as patriots and described them as hostages - and announced pardons when he returns to the White House.
The re-elected Trump did not mention them in his victory speech on Wednesday, but expectations are high. The "J6" rioters, as they are known, repeatedly played a role in the election campaign and were celebrated as heroes at rallies.
Trump wants to pardon rioters
Trump has announced that he will pardon the rioters on the first day of his new presidency. He told "Time Magazine" that he would consider pardoning all of them. He later added: "If somebody was bad and mean, I would look at it differently."
Speaking to NBC, however, he did not rule out Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the radical right-wing "Proud Boys" who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy. Tarrio had been treated terribly, Trump said.
At an event in July, he declared that he would definitely pardon those accused of attacking security forces if they were "blameless". In response to the interviewer's objection that these were convicted rioters, Trump replied that they had ultimately been convicted by a "very tough system".
"The pardon system is designed for winners and losers"
As president, Trump now has extensive powers to issue mass pardons, says Kim Wehle from the University of Baltimore, outlining the legal framework. "The pardon system is designed for winners and losers," she says. "Who gets pardoned and who doesn't is completely subjective. It's completely arbitrary, depending on the whims of the president." Trump could shape the pardons however he wanted and the public would have no way of challenging them.
In his first term in office, Trump had already made use of his power with a clear tendency. In recent days in particular, a broad spectrum of political allies have been pardoned.
Jacob Lang and many others are now also banking on this: They, the "political prisoners" of January 6, 2021, would "finally be coming home", the detainee declared immediately after Trump's election victory. "There will be no bitterness in my heart when I walk through these doors in 75 days, on Inauguration Day."
