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Trump’s sweeping pardon — which went further than his allies had signalled they expected — drew condemnation from police who battled the mob, their families and lawmakers, including some of the president’s fellow Republicans.
“And I’ve been betrayed by those that supported Donald Trump,” Fanone told CNN. “The leader of the Republican Party pardoned hundreds of violent cop assaulters. Six individuals who assaulted me as I did my job on January 6… will now walk free.”
“President Trump campaigned on this promise,” she said on Fox News. “It should come as no surprise that he delivered on it on Day One.”
Former Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders released
“It’s redemption, but also vindication,” Rhodes told reporters outside the Washington DC jail, where a crowd of Trump supporters waited for more prisoners to be released.
The pardons were celebrated in posts on Proud Boys Telegram channels, with several chapters using them as recruiting tools and others volunteering to help enforce Trump’s pledge to deport millions of migrants.
Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the far-right Proud Boys, was convicted of crimes including seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the Capitol riot that sought to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election defeat of Trump in 2020. Source: AP
‘The man who killed my brother’
“My brother died in vain. Everything he did to try to protect the country, to protect the Capitol — why did he bother?” Sicknick said. “What Trump did is despicable, and it proves that the United States no longer has anything that resembles a justice system.”
An image of the late US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick on display at the US Capitol in Washington. Source: AAP
Trump’s order extended from the people who committed only misdemeanours such as trespassing all the way to those who served as ringleaders for the assault.
‘Justice has come’
“I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” said Chansley. “J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME…”
Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman”, became one of the faces of the January 6 2021 assault on the US Capitol because of his red, white and blue facepaint, bare chest and unusual headgear. Source: SIPA USA / /
“God bless President Trump!!!” said far-right Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“It’s finally over. J6’ers are being released,” Greene said on X. “Never forget what the Democrats did.”
He described them as “hostages” and ordered that all pending criminal cases against Capitol riot defendants be dropped.
With additional reporting by Reuters and AFP.
