Trump issues broad pardons for Jan. 6 defendants

WASHINGTON — President Trump issued pardons Monday night for participants in the 2021 Capitol riot — staying true to his promise to grant clemency to people involved in halting the counting of Electoral College votes on Jan.6, 2021.Trump signed about 1,500 pardons after returning to the White House from a day of inaugural festivities, telling reporters present that “I hope they come out tonight” — after announcing the plan moments earlier.“We’re going to go to the Oval Office, we’re going to release our great hostages that didn’t do — for the most part, they didn’t do stuff wrong,” Trump, 78, said at an event that served as a stand-in for the traditional inaugural parade, which was canceled due to dangerously cold weather.The 47th president, whom the House of Representatives impeached seven days after the riot for allegedly inciting the mob, said participants were treated unfairly compared to people who committed crimes during anti-police brutality riots in 2020.“Look at what happens in other parts of the country.

In Portland, where they kill people, they destroy the city, nothing happens to them.In Seattle, where they took over a big chunk of the city, nothing happened.

In Minneapolis, where they burned down the city, nothing happened,” he said before inking the pardons.The Justice Department criminally charged 1,575 people in connection to the Capitol riot — some of whom were convicted of assaulting police, while many others faced charges and in instances received jail time for nonviolently entering the Capitol without permission.It was not immediately clear how many alleged and convicted rioters would be left off the pardon list owing to the varying severity of their crimes.Trump had vowed on the campaign trail he would consider the pardons on a case-by-case basis — but long expressed anger at the rioters being imprisoned for years and said he would go about reviewing the pardons “in the first hour that I get into office.”The...