President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned about 1,500 people for crimes related to 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol, fulfilling a campaign promise.
“These are the hostages,” he said while signing the papers in the Oval Office amid a wide-ranging news conference.
“We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said after signing the pardons. “They’re expecting it.”
Trump had promised to begin the pardon process within his “first nine minutes” of returning to the White House. By Monday evening, he had issued a pardon proclamation.
“This proclamation 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,” he said in the proclamation.
Among those who got pardons are Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Thomas Caldwell, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerschel, Joseph Hackett, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Jeremy Bertino. He commuted the sentences to time served as of inauguration day.
Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers, a group involved in the Jan. 6 attack. The group’s website previously described itself as “a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders, who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Rhodes and four other Oath Keepers were convicted of sedition for plotting to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Those were in addition to “all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” according to the proclamation.
It further ordered the U.S. Attorney General to immediately issue certificates of pardon. It said that those who are in prison should be released immediately. And that the Bureau of Prisons should “immediately implement all instructions from the Department of Justice regarding this directive.”
Those facing pending charges will also get pardons.
“I further direct the Attorney General to pursue dismissal with prejudice to the government of all pending indictments against individuals for their conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” according to the proclamation.
More than 1,500 people were charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
Trump never promised a blanket pardon, but said he would pardon “many” of those convicted.
“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 said at CNN Town Hall in 2023.
In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal prosecutors overstepped their authority when they charged those who stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021 with obstruction. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the 6-3 majority, said that if Congress wanted prosecutors to be able to add 20-year prison sentences on those who protested on Jan. 6, 2021, lawmakers would have said so.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump supporters gathered outside the Capitol in protest. Some later forced their way into the building, breaking windows, assaulting police and delaying the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
