Trump pardons upend massive Jan 6 prosecution by freeing rioters and dismissing cases

More than 200 people convicted of Jan. 6 crimes were released from federal Bureau of Prisons custody by Tuesday morning, officials told The Associated Press.

The pardons and commutations cement Trump's efforts to downplay the violence that left more than 100 police officers injured as the mob fueled by his lies about the 2020 election stormed the Capitol and halted the certification of President Joe Biden's victory.

Trump's decision to grant clemency to even rioters who assaulted police — whom his own vice president recently said "obviously" shouldn't be pardoned — underscores how Trump has returned to power emboldened to take actions once believed politically unthinkable. And it shows how Trump plans to radically overhaul the Justice Department that also brought criminal charges against him in two cases he contends were politically motivated.

"The implications are clear," said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian. "Trump will go to great lengths to protect those who act in his name. This is the culmination of his effort to rewrite Jan 6, in this case using his presidential muscle to free those who were part of a violent assault on the Capitol."

As defendants celebrated their release outside lockups across the country, the federal prosecutor's office in Washington that spent the last four years charging rioters filed a flurry of motions to dismiss cases that have yet to go to trial. The motions were marked with the name of the man Trump has named to lead, at least temporarily, the capital's U.S. attorney's office — Ed Martin, a board member of a group called the Patriot Freedom Project, which portrays the Jan. 6 defendants as victims of political persecution.

The former leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the most serious charges brought by the Justice Department, were both released from prison hours after Trump signed the clemency order. Stewart Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, was serving an 18-year prison sentence, and Enrique Tarrio, of Miami, was serving a 22-year sentence.

About 100 people gathered in frigid temperatures outside the District of Columbia jail, where a handful of Jan. 6 defendants remained behind bars as of Tuesday morning.

Among those in the crowd was Robert Morss, a former Army Ranger and high school history teacher who was sentenced to more than five years in prison for his attacks on police at the Capitol. Morss was released late Monday from a halfway house in Pittsburgh and drove through the night to support defendants jailed in Washington.

Another Jan. 6 defendant, Kevin Loftus, traveled to the jail in Washington after his release from another lockup. Loftus was sentenced in December to six months behind bars for violating the terms of his probation after trying to fly overseas to join the Russian military and fight against Ukraine. He said he was going to have the pardon from Trump framed.

"I'm just a working man, dude. People like us don't get presidential pardons," Loftus said.

John Pierce, an attorney who has represented several Jan. 6 defendants, said he was "pleasantly surprised" that Trump's pardons went as far as they did, considering Vance's recent comments that suggested only nonviolent offenders would receive relief. Trump's pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, also indicated that she did not believe violent rioters should be pardoned, telling lawmakers at her confirmation hearing that she condemned violence against police.

"He did not have to do this. He had a lot of opposition within his own party," Pierce said. "I do think it showed a lot of courage by President Trump to pardon everybody, so we are obviously grateful for that." Pierce said clemency for all the defendants was justified because, he contends, they couldn't get a fair trial in the nation's heavily Democratic capital.

The federal courthouse in Washington, which has been jammed with Jan. 6 cases over the last four years, was quiet Tuesday as proceedings were abruptly canceled. Hallways that would have been teeming with prospective jurors were empty. Judges who would have been hearing cases were not on the bench.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly made a brief appearance in her sixth-floor courtroom to formally dismiss a Jan. 6 case against a father and son from Minnesota whose trial started last week. The court had notified jurors that they didn't need to return this week.

"The parties are excused," the judge said, without commenting on Trump's clemency order.

The son, 22-year-old Caleb Fuller, hugged his attorney and then his mother, Amanda, who wore a sequined jacket with an American flag on the front and the words "Proud American" emblazoned on the back.

Those pardoned include more than 250 people who were convicted of assault charges, some having attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch. Many of the attacks were captured on surveillance or body camera footage that showed rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police as officers desperately fought to beat back the angry crowd.

One man was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to smash a widow with a metal tomahawk and hurling makeshift weapons at police officers guarding the building. Another man received 20 years behind bars for swinging poles at officers defending a tunnel, striking an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacking police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture.

A Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot by police while trying to climb through the broken window of a barricaded Capitol doorway. Authorities cleared the officer of any wrongdoing after an investigation. Three other people in the crowd died of medical emergencies.

At least four officers who were at the Capitol later died by suicide. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.