Trump Issues Pardons for 1,500 Defendants Charged in Jan. 6 Attack on US Capitol

(Ashley Murray – North Dakota Monitor) – President Donald Trump on Monday night issued sweeping pardons for nearly all Jan. 6 defendants, erasing accountability for those who violently tried to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results on that date in 2021.

Behind the desk of the Oval Office, Trump told reporters he signed a pardon for nearly 1,500 defendants who participated in the attack and commuted the sentences for several others whose punishments require “further research,” he said.

“We hope they come out tonight. They’re expecting it,” Trump said about the defendants.

Journalists outside the D.C. Central Detention Facility, where many Jan. 6 defendants are being held, reported families began gathering there Monday in anticipation of the pardons.

The White House released the names of 14 defendants whose sentences Trump commuted. They include numerous right-wing militia leaders convicted of seditious conspiracy.