US President Donald Trump has issued pardons or commutations for more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the US Capitol riot four years ago.
Trump also signed an order directing the Department of Justice to drop all pending cases against suspects accused in the riot.
The executive action came shortly after Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the US inside the Capitol, which was stormed by his supporters on 6 January 2021 as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office on Monday evening, January 20 Trump displayed a list of the names of US Capitol riot defendants he said were receiving a pardon.
“These are the hostages, approximately 1,500 for a pardon, full pardon,” Trump said. “This is a big one.”
“These people have been destroyed,” he added. “What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like it in the history of our country.”
The proclamation says that it “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”.
According to Justice Department figures released earlier this month, approximately 1,583 defendants have been charged with crimes associated with the riot.
More than 600 have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or obstructing law enforcement, including around 175 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
Capitol Police officers were attacked with weapons including metal batons, wooden planks, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, and pepper spray.
The 14 defendants who had their sentences commuted – meaning they will be released, but their convictions will remain on the record – include Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer, led a contingent of his militia members to Washington. They stashed weapons in a hotel room across the Potomac River in Virginia while participating in the melee.
Rhodes did not enter the Capitol but directed his members from outside, and was sentenced in 2023 to 18 years in prison.
Trump issued a blanket “full, complete, and unconditional pardon” to all others who were involved in the riot.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who was among the lawmakers forced to flee during the riot, called Trump’s actions “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”.
