Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
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 incoming commander-in-chief telegraphed the move at a rally in Washington, DC, on Sunday night.
“Tomorrow everyone in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision on the J6 hostages,” Trump said, causing the crowd at the Capitol One Arena to erupt into cheers.
“A vast majority should not be in jail, and they’ve suffered gravely,” he had told Time magazine in his December “Person of the Year” interview, noting that especially non-violent offenders should not be behind bars.
One non-violent offender, Philip Sean Grillo of New York City, shouted, “Trump’s gonna pardon me anyways,” when he was sentenced to one year in prison in early December for walking around the Capitol building and shouting “charge” into a megaphone.
A majority of the charges related to unlawful entry and disorderly conduct, but some were handed multi-year sentences for assault or other crimes.
About 562 rioters were sentenced to time in federal prison as of August 2024, per the Department of Justice.
Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio was given one of the longest sentences — 22 years for seditious conspiracy, even though he was not present at the Capitol on the day of the attack.
Four of Trump’s supporters died during the riot — including Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a cop as she climbed through a busted-out window in the House Speaker’s Lobby.
Another Trump supporter, Rosanne Boyland, 34, died after collapsing in the Rotunda during clashes between rioters and police.
Two other Trump supporters — Benjamin Philips, 50, and Kevin Greeson, 55 — died of medical emergencies during the riot.
Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, 42, himself a Trump voter, died of a stroke one day after the attack. Two police officers died by suicide within days of the violence.
Trump hinted at issuing pardons to Jan. 6 rioters as early as 2022, before he had officially announced his run for re-election.
“If I run, and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” Trump said at a January rally that year in Conroe, Texas.
“And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons,” he added. “Because they are being treated so unfairly.”
Trump doubled down as he got closer to assuming the White House once more, saying the pardons would likely be a Day One action.
“I’m going to be acting very quickly. First day,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker, adding, “they’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
He noted there me be “exceptions” for those who were “radical” or “crazy” — but said otherwise the “system is a very nasty system” and that some were forced to plead guilty.
Trump was outraged after former President Biden issued a sweeping pardon to his son Hunter, writing, “does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
