Trump’s Last-Minute Decision on Jan. 6 Pardons: ‘F*** It’
The Trump transition team’s internal debate about which Capitol rioters to pardon and which violent convicts to keep behind bars ultimately came down to a snap decision and a four-letter word from the then-president-elect.
“Trump just said: ‘F--- it. Release ‘em all,’” an adviser familiar with the talks told Axios.
On Monday, Trump signed a blanket pardon for about 1,500 rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. A police officer and four people in the mob died, while another four police officers died by suicide in the months that followed.
The would-be insurrectionists pepper sprayed and beat police officers with flagpoles, stomped on their heads, threw a bomb into a tunnel full of police, hurled officers down a flight of stairs and plotted to kill FBI agents investigating the attacks.
The Justice Department denounced the riot as an act of domestic terrorism, and some of its key figures—including leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militias—received prison sentences of up to 22 years. Trump issued them clemencies instead of pardons, meaning their convictions still stand, but they’re now either back on the streets or will be soon.
Throughout his re-election campaign, Trump had promised to pardon the Jan. 6 “hostages” and “patriots,” as he called the attackers. In December, he told Meet the Press he would “look at individual cases.”
But the detailed reviews apparently became too much for the president’s famously short attention span. Trump began going back and forth on whether to grant targeted clemencies or issue a blanket pardon, Axios reported.
As recently as Jan. 13, his Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that people who committed violence during the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, should not be pardoned, which he thought was in line with Trump’s thinking.
Days later, Trump decided he just wanted to get it over with, and that he would pardon everyone as soon as he was sworn in—even though the move promised to be deeply unpopular with the public.
Last week, a poll found that a resounding 73 percent of Americans living in the most competitive congressional districts opposed pardoning rioters convicted of assaulting the Capitol police officers, including more than half of Republicans.
But Trump’s advisers don’t think that opposition will translate to any electoral consequences, according to Axios. As far as they’re concerned, the issue was already litigated in November, when voters proved they didn’t actually care enough to abandon Trump over the matter.
Even the Fraternal Order of Police union, which slammed the pardons on Tuesday, endorsed Trump in the 2024 election—despite his promise to pardon the rioters.
