- President Donald Trump stated that he’s considering financial compensation for individuals pardoned in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, referring to them as “patriots.” He mentioned in an interview with Newsmax that government officials are discussing the compensation.
- At the start of his second term, Trump issued clemency to over 1,500 people charged in connection with the riot.
- Trump pardoned most defendants and commuted sentences for members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
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President Donald Trump said he’s considering financial compensation for pardoned defendants prosecuted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He made the comments on Tuesday, March 25, during an interview with Newsmax.
“Is there any talk of — cause they lost opportunity, they lost income — any kind of compensation fund or anything like that?” Newsmax’s Greg Kelly asked the president.
“Well, there’s talk about that,” Trump responded. “We have a lot of people … a lot of the people that are in government now talk about it because … really like that group of people.”
He added, “They were patriots as far as I was concerned.”
Trump’s pardoning of Jan. 6 rioters
In one of his first official acts of his second term in office, President Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the riot at the Capitol, issuing pardons to most of the defendants and commuting the sentences for members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia.
A The Washington Post-Ipsos poll in February found that 83% of respondents were against the idea of clemency for violent offenders, with just 14% saying they were in favor of the pardons. For nonviolent offenders, 55% said they didn’t support such pardons.
Trump’s criticism of Biden’s pardons
The president recently criticized former President Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons, including those for family members and lawmakers on the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.”
Autopen is a generic name given to a machine that uses real ink for signature reproduction.
