By Bo Erickson, Andrew Goudsward and Deborah Gembara
Oath Keepers found Stewart Rhodes was released last night after spending the past three years in Cumberland, Maryland at the Federal Correctional Institution. Photo: Getty via AFP
Donald Trump supporters who attacked the US Capitol four years ago began to leave prison on Tuesday after the newly installed president issued sweeping pardons, an early signal that he intends to make aggressive use of his executive power.
The Republican president's pardon of 1500 defendants on Monday evening, hours after he took the oath of office, drew outrage from lawmakers who were endangered and from some of the 140 police officers injured in the attack on 6 January, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 victory.
"I have been betrayed by my country," Michael Fanone, a former officer with Washington's Metropolitan Police Department who suffered severe injuries during the riot, told CNN on Monday after Trump's announcement. "Tonight, six individuals who assaulted me as I did my job on January 6, as did hundreds of other law enforcement officers, will now walk free."
Trump's clemency extended from the people who committed only misdemeanors such as trespassing to those who attacked police officers and to the far smaller group who planned the assault on democracy.
One of Trump's fellow Republicans, Senator Thom Tillis, said pardoning rioters who assaulted police sent a wrong message.
"I saw an image today in my news clippings of the people who were crushing that police officer. None of them should get a pardon," Tillis told Reuters in a hallway interview. "You make this place less safe if you send the signal that police officers could potentially be assaulted and there is no consequence. It's pretty straightforward to me."
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt defended the pardons, claiming without evidence that many of the convictions were politically motivated.
"President Trump campaigned on this promise," she said on Fox News. "It should come as no surprise that he delivered on it on Day One."
More than 1000 defendants pleaded guilty rather than go to trial, including 327 who pleaded guilty to felonies, according to Justice Department statistics.
Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia who had his 18-year prison sentence commuted, was released shortly after midnight on Tuesday in Cumberland, Maryland.
Rhodes did not enter the US Capitol on 6 January, but he was found guilty of plotting to use force against Congress to prevent the election certification. He was also accused of helping to stockpile firearms at a hotel in nearby Virginia that could be ferried across the river to Washington, DC.
Rhodes was one of 14 people whom Trump released from prison early, commuting their sentences, without fully pardoning them. That means they will continue to face some restrictions, including a ban on owning firearms.
The family of Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, said his release was expected on Tuesday. Tarrio was not present at the Capitol on 6 January, but was sentenced to 22 years, the longest imposed on any defendant, after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the attack.
Largest investigation in Justice Department history
Trump's action shutters the largest investigation in the Justice Department's history, including more than 300 cases that had still been pending. Prosecutors filed dozens of motions to dismiss cases on Tuesday morning, federal court records showed.
In Washington, the trial of Kenneth Fuller and his son Caleb, who faced felony charges of obstructing police during a civil disorder, came to an abrupt end on Tuesday.
Federal judges in Washington - including some appointed by Trump - have for years handled Capitol riot cases and spoken of their alarm at the events of the day. At a November hearing, Trump-nominated US District Judge Carl Nichols said a blanket 6 January pardon would be "beyond frustrating or disappointing," according to a court transcript.
The judge presiding over the Fullers' trial, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, ordered it dismissed without discussion, noting that her ruling satisfied what she called Trump's edict.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Caleb Fuller, 22, told reporters that he and his parents popped a bottle of champagne in their hotel room after hearing Trump's decision on Monday night.
"I'm a free man now," he said.
Fuller said he didn't witness any violence during the riot.
"I didn't see anyone get hurt," he said. "So I feel like everyone that was around me is deserving of a pardon."
The attack was spurred by Trump's refusal to acknowledge his defeat, which threatened the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in US history.
The sweeping action went further than many of Trump's allies had signalled. Both Vice President JD Vance and Trump's attorney general choice Pam Bondi had previously said they believed people who committed violence were unlikely to be pardoned.
'Violence is the norm in this country'
Among those due to be released were leaders of the far-right Proud Boys organisation, including some convicted of seditious conspiracy. About 40 men wearing Proud Boys insignia traded insults with protesters on the streets of Washington during Trump's inauguration on Monday.
Others due for release included Dominic Pezzola, who was accused of stealing a police officer's riot shield and using it to smash a window, beginning the breach of the Capitol.
Attorney Norm Pattis, who represents Rhodes and two other 6 January leaders, disputed the notion that the clemency would lead to an increase in political violence.
"Our politics has always been violent," Pattis said, pointing to events ranging from the Civil War to the protests of the 1960s that sometimes led to bloodshed. "Violence is the norm in this country."
Trump's were not the only pardons on Monday: Biden in his final hours in office pre-emptively pardoned five members of his own family, a move that followed his pardon last year of son Hunter Biden, who had been charged with tax fraud and an illegal firearms purchase. The Democrat had previously pledged not to pardon his son.
Trump's pardon was only one of a sheaf of executive orders he signed after an inauguration ceremony in the US Rotunda, where his supporters had rampaged four years earlier.
Trump kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown, cut support for wind power and electric vehicles and cleared the way for oil drilling in the Arctic and in offshore areas. He withdrew from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organisation.
He delayed the ban of the popular TikTok video app that was due to be shuttered on Sunday.
- Reuters
