WASHINGTON ,D.C. – The people detained for their role in the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack are being released after President Donald Trump pardoned them. Hours after swearing in, President Trump pardoned about 15-hundred people who participated in the attack.
On that day, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the election certification process after Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
“We’re going to decide we’re going to release our great hostages that didn’t do for the most part they didn’t do stuff wrong,” said Trump on Inauguration Day.
It’s a different tune than four years ago in a speech after the attack:
“The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy,” said Trump in 2021. “To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction: you do not represent our country, and to those who broke the law, you will pay.”
“I have concerns obviously because police officers died that day there were assaults on police officers and I just have a certain amount of concern for our police officers,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D- NY).
“This is devastating and dangerous,” said Noah Bookbinder, President of the ethics watchdog group CREW (Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington). He said the pardons show disrespect to law enforcement officers and undermines free and open elections.
“These were people who participated in an effort to install a power for somebody who lost an election and to do it by force,” said Bookbinder. “It’s also dangerous because it sends the signal that people doing violence and destructive things can get away with it if there are things Donald Trump wants.”
