Washington: Donald Trump on Monday (January 20, 2025) pardoned almost all of the people convicted for participating in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and ordered charges dropped in any pending cases, fulfilling a controversial campaign promise just hours after he returned to the White House. 

Trump announced the mass clemency for more than 1,500 people to reporters on Monday evening and the official proclamation was released soon after.

The pardons covered convictions that ranged from misdemeanor trespassing to assaulting police with weapons and immediately became a political lightning rod. 

The January 6 attack spurred the largest federal criminal investigation in US history.

Approximately 1,583 people had been federally charged with participating in the attack as of the fourth anniversary earlier this month, according to the government.

More than 1,000 defendants pleaded guilty and more than 200 were convicted at trial. 

There were more than 300 cases pending that hadn't reached a verdict or plea deal. Trump ordered the US Justice Department to dismiss all pending indictments. 

The clemency action "ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation,"  the proclamation stated.

Federal Charges

Trump also signed commutations cutting short the prison sentences of 14 people associated with the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys extremist groups. They were the only defendants to not receive full pardons. That group included Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, while former Proud Boys chairman Henry "Enrique"  Tarrio was part of the larger cohort that received a pardon.

Marina Medvin, a defense attorney for multiple January 6 defendants, wrote in a message to Bloomberg News that she had grown to "care deeply"  for her clients and that "the pardons will help them to move on from that day."

Others condemned the action. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement calling it "an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution."  

Trump's refusal to accept his 2020 election loss became a core part of his post-presidency political identity. He made the prospect of mass clemency for the people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack "- which temporarily stopped Congress from certifying former President Joe Biden's win "- a prominent part of his re-election campaign. 

Mass Clemency

Before Monday's action, Trump's critics and former federal prosecutors had denounced the prospect of sweeping pardons, warning it would normalize political violence. More than 140 police officers were assaulted and rioters caused millions of dollars in damage to the Capitol building, according to the US attorney's office in Washington.

Sentences for the rioters have ranged from probation for people found guilty of misdemeanor crimes for illegally entering the Capitol to decades in prison for defendants convicted of violence or seditious conspiracy. Trials revealed that people brought guns, knives, chemical sprays, tasers and a variety of makeshift weapons to the Capitol.

Trump originally had said he'd sign six commutations at the White House, but the final number was slightly higher, according to the proclamation.

There is precedent for large-scale presidential clemency. In December, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who had been placed on home confinement during the pandemic. A few days before he left office, the White House announced that he commuted another 2,500 sentences for non-violent drug offenders.

The late President Jimmy Carter signed a proclamation in 1977 pardoning Americans who avoided the military draft during the Vietnam War, although there was an exception for crimes involving "force or violence." 

(Updated with more details about the clemency action and reactions starting in second paragraph.)

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