After President Trump's historic comeback, will there be pardons for the January 6th prisoners? Some who were convicted over the Capitol riot are already preparing for that possibility.
Multiple January 6th protesters have asked the courts to pause their cases as they await a potential reprieve from the president-elect, the Daily Caller reported.
Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump often defended the January 6th participants as patriots who have been treated unfairly by the justice system.
Over 1,5000 people have been charged in the Justice Department's investigation, and more than 1,000 have already been sentenced. Trump has floated pardons for some of those who entered the Capitol, many of whom were non-violent.
“I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control,” Trump told a CNN town hall in 2023.
Lawyers for Christopher Carnell, a non-violent offender, cited a hypothetical pardon in a request to delay a November 8 hearing. The judge shot it down.
"Mr. Carnell, who was an 18 year old nonviolent entrant into the Capitol on January 6, is expecting to be relieved of the criminal prosecution that he is currently facing when the new administration takes office," his lawyers wrote.
January 6th defendant Mitchell Bosch, while seeking a trial delay, argued he could face retaliation over Trump's re-election from a jury in overwhelmingly Democratic Washington D.C. That request was also shut down.
Meanwhile, Trump has received a pardon from the voters, who chose to send him back to Washington with a resounding mandate despite his alleged role in starting an "insurrection" on January 6th, 2021.
The judge in Trump's "election interference" case pressed pause Friday after a request from Jack Smith, who is expected to drop his prosecutions against President-elect Trump.
The Biden Justice Department has dropped some charges against January 6th defendants after the Supreme Court rebuked the DOJ for stretching a federal obstruction statute to charge hundreds of Trump supporters.
Trump told the National Association of Black Journalists in July that he would "absolutely" pardon those who are innocent, adding, “They were convicted by a very tough system."
“President Trump will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis,” Trump's campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to the Daily Caller.
