(The Center Square) – President-elect Donald Trump said he could start pardons for “most” convicted Jan. 6 protesters during his first minutes in the White House.
Trump pledged throughout his campaign that he would pardon some people convicted of crimes during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“It’s going to start in the first hour,” Trump told Time on Thursday. “Maybe the first nine minutes.”
Trump vowed in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to pardon protesters, saying he’d look at each case individually.
“These people are living in hell,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker, noting that some had been in jail for three years.
More than 1,500 people were charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
Trump didn’t promise a blanket pardon.
“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, 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 rioted 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.
