Supporters of Donald Trump who attacked the US Capitol four years ago have started leaving prison, pardoned by the new president in a flurry of Inauguration Day executive orders showing intent to stamp radical change on the country.
The Republican president’s pardon of 1,500 defendants drew outrage from politicians who were endangered in the January 6 2021, attack, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
“The president’s actions are an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution,” former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Michael Fanone, a former Washington police officer who was repeatedly shocked with a Taser and badly beaten by members of the pro-Trump mob, said he has been “betrayed by my country.”
“And I’ve been betrayed by those that supported Donald Trump,” Fanone told CNN. “The leader of the Republican Party pardoned hundreds of violent cop assaulters. Six individuals who assaulted me as I did my job on January 6… will now walk free.”
Among those pardoned was David Dempsey, 37, a California man who pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers and was described by prosecutors as one of the “most violent” members of the pro-Trump mob.
Dempsey used his “hands, feet, flag poles, crutches, pepper spray, broken pieces of furniture, and anything else he could get his hands on, as weapons against the police,” prosecutors said.
Dempsey had been serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Also receiving a pardon was Enrique Tarrio, the, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for directing a military-style assault on the Capitol.
The pardons were celebrated in posts on Proud Boys Telegram channels, with several chapters using them as recruiting tools and others volunteering to help enforce Trump’s pledge to deport millions of migrants.
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, was also among those released after his 18-year prison sentence was commuted to time served. Both Tarrio and Rhodes had been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
‘Justice has come’
But the pardons were welcomed by January 6 defendants and their Republican backers.
Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” who became one of the faces of the Capitol riot because of his red, white and blue facepaint, bare chest and unusual horned headgear, welcomed the pardon in a post on X.
“I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” said Chansley. “J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME…”
Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman”, became one of the faces of the January 6 2021 assault on the US Capitol because of his red, white and blue facepaint, bare chest and unusual headgear. Source: SIPA USA / /
“God bless President Trump!!!” said far-right Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“It’s finally over. J6’ers are being released,” Greene said on X. “Never forget what the Democrats did.”
Trump, hours after being sworn in on Tuesday, granted pardons to more than 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol including those convicted of assaulting police officers.
He described them as “hostages” and ordered that all pending criminal cases against Capitol riot defendants be dropped.
The Capitol assault followed a fiery speech by then-president Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 race. He then encouraged the crowd to march on Congress.
Trump was charged with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
But the case never made it to trial, and was dropped following Trump’s November election victory under the US justice department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
With additional reporting by Reuters and AFP.
