Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
Trump pardons about 1,500 January 6 defendants and commutes 14 sentences on his first day in office
A proclamation signed hours after the inauguration erased convictions for the Capitol attack and ordered every pending indictment dismissed.
What happened
On January 20, 2025, hours after taking office, Trump signed a proclamation granting a full and unconditional pardon to everyone convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. About 1,500 defendants were covered, including people who had pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers.
Fourteen Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders were carved out of the pardon and had their sentences commuted to time served. They include Stewart Rhodes, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. The rest of the roughly 1,500 defendants received full pardons.
The proclamation directed the attorney general to dismiss with prejudice all pending January 6 indictments. It told the attorney general to issue pardon certificates immediately and ordered the Bureau of Prisons to release anyone still in custody.
Who benefited
About 1,500 people convicted of or charged with January 6 offenses had their convictions erased or their cases dismissed. The 14 leaders were released from prison by commutation. Trump, who had promised the pardons during the campaign, carried out the promise within hours of taking office.
Who wanted something
Trump pushed for the pardons personally and signed them within hours of the inauguration. Defendants’ advocates had lobbied for blanket relief. The proclamation described the prosecutions as a grave national injustice and called its own action national reconciliation, which recast the cases as persecution of his supporters.
Who lost out
About 140 police officers were injured on January 6. The prosecutors, judges and juries whose work was nullified lost out as well. The pardons covered people who had pleaded guilty to assaulting officers, and they signaled that attacking the Capitol on the president’s behalf would carry no lasting penalty.
Why it matters
The pardon power erased accountability for the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history. The proclamation covered every conviction and every pending case at once, and it was the first act of the second term.
Sources NPRThe White House (primary)