Three federal judges on Wednesday delivered strong rebukes against US President Donald Trump’s mass pardons of supporters, who stormed the Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. The pardons, issued on Trump’s first day back in office, have drawn criticism from several quarters.
Trump, sworn in Monday after his re-election victory, pardoned over 1,500 individuals linked to the attack on the Capitol, including 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia. The riot aimed to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential win.
District Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed charges against one Capitol riot defendant but issued a scathing statement. “No pardon can change the tragic truth of what happened on January 6, 2021,” Chutkan said. “It cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.”
Chutkan also presided over the criminal case brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith, accusing Trump of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.
However, the case was dismissed after Trump’s election victory, aligning with the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Two other federal judges similarly condemned the pardons. District Judge Beryl Howell dismissed charges against two defendants but expressed her disapproval of the reasoning behind the pardons. “No ‘national injustice’ occurred here, just as no outcome-determinative election fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election,” Howell said.
She added, “Poor losers cannot be allowed to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power with impunity. That merely raises the dangerous specter of future lawless conduct by other poor losers and undermines the rule of law.”
District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also criticised the pardons while dismissing charges. “What occurred that day is preserved for the future through thousands of contemporaneous videos, transcripts of trials, jury verdicts, and judicial opinions,” she said. “Those records are immutable and represent the truth, no matter how the events of January 6 are described by those charged or their allies.”
The January 6 attack left more than 140 police officers injured as rioters, armed with flagpoles, bats, Tasers, and bear spray, stormed the Capitol. During his campaign, Trump had pledged to pardon those involved, describing them as “patriots” and “political prisoners.”
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the violence of the Capitol attack, once calling it a “day of love.” The attack followed a speech by Trump to his supporters near the White House, where he repeated false claims of election fraud and encouraged them to march on Congress.
