JD Vance says Trump will pardon Jan. 6ers who protested peacefully, not violent rioters

Vice President-elect JD Vance said that President-elect Donald Trump will issue pardons for peaceful protesters on Jan.6, 2021 — but not violent rioters.

Vance said that there were scores of individuals who “were prosecuted unfairly” after the Jan.6 ransacking of the Capitol and that the Trump administration will “rectify that.”“If you protested peacefully on January the 6th, and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned,” Vance, 40, told “Fox News Sunday” about the line Trump will draw.

“If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.And there’s a little bit of a gray area there.

But we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law.”Vance later responded to backlash over his comments — with some accusing him of “walking back” promises to pardon people who were at the Capitol on Jan.6.

“The president saying he’ll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walkback,” he posted on X.Trump has long teased plans to issue clemency towards some of the individuals charged, but he’s also caveated that his administration would look at each case individually.Since the storming of the Capitol four years ago, prosecutors have filed charges against more than 1,500 people.

Nearly 1,300 have been convicted and 1,100 sentenced, according to a tracker from the Associated Press.Only two were acquitted.Most of the charges revolved around illegal parading, entering a restricted area and disorderly conduct.

But there were at least 238 charges pertaining to assault and 86 tied to physical violence.Vance also weighed in on the California wildfire crisis, saying that he is “heartbroken” over the devastation caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles County.

But he also faulted a “serious lack of competent governance” for the scale of the destruction.“Some of these reservoirs have been dry for 15, 20 years.The fi...