Fascinating account of concerns and chatter over Prez-Elect Trump’s pardon plans for Jan 6 defendants

December 1, 2024

In this post the morning after Donald Trump’s election, I wondered aloud about how he might seek to make good on his campaign promises to pardon persons federally prosecuted for their behaviors at the Capital on January 6, 2021. In that post, I noted that Trump’s campaign team seemed eager to stress that Jan 6 clemencies would be decided “on a case-by-case basis.” But that statement raises all sorts of questions about what kind of clemency process Trump and his team might adopt to review the huge universe of 1,500+ Jan. 6 defendants likely to seek clemency.

A new lengthy Politico article notes that adds further intrigue to this developing story under the headline “Trump promised Jan. 6 pardons. His post-election silence is making loyalists nervous.” I recommend the piece in the full, and here are excerpts (with links from the original):

Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to pardon a vast swath of supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But his silence on the matter since winning the election has begun unsettling some fervent allies awaiting even the slightest signal from Trump about how he intends to turn his campaign rhetoric into reality.

Federal judges overseeing Jan. 6 cases have been left to guess at Trump’s plans. As a result, they have allowed nearly all cases to proceed, saying Trump’s clemency plans are merely “speculative.” Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have brought a handful of new Jan. 6 felony cases since Election Day, and they’ve argued repeatedly against efforts by defendants to delay their cases to await Trump’s inauguration.

The Justice Department has charged more than 1,500 people for their roles in the riot. Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would pardon many of them. But he left the specifics unclear, and never said whether he might leave in place some prosecutions, particularly against people who assaulted police.

Now that he’s president-elect, his failure to say more has begun nagging at some of his die-hard supporters, who have engaged in a public guessing game on X about Trump’s intentions…. Adding to the anxiety expressed by some Jan. 6 defendants is a statement from Trump’s transition team that hinted at a far more limited approach than the sweeping pardons that many in Trump’s base have demanded.

“President Trump will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis,” incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in the statement. The meaning of “case-by-case” has morphed into a raging debate among Jan. 6 defendants and their allies….

[T]wo Trump allies in Congress — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — issued new calls this week for Trump to issue blanket pardons. [Julie] Kelly, who has spoken with Trump and congressional Republicans about concerns with Jan. 6 prosecutions, has similarly called for a blanket pardon to address what she calls a “blanket denial of the due process rights of Jan. 6 protesters.”

Kelly suggested that Trump’s public silence belies an enormous amount of advocacy behind the scenes, but she said there are also “political sensitivities” about the notion of pardoning those with assault charges — even though she believes many such pardons would be justified….

[Pam] Bondi, Trump’s new pick to lead the Justice Department, has said nothing publicly about Jan. 6, the perpetrators of the Capitol attack or whether she agrees with Trump’s view of the riot. [Suzanne] Monk, who is leading an effort called the J6 Pardon Project, has told allies she is working to open lines of communication with Bondi. In the meantime, Jan. 6 defendants and allies have continued hoping and speculating.

For any and everyone interested in these issues and broader clemency matters, let me further recommend my recent Sentencing Matters Substack post as well as this December 10 event I will be moderating on federal clemency topics.

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