GET OUT OF JAIL FREE — Nearly three years after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, hundreds of cases against alleged perpetrators remain pending. The Department of Justice and the FBI have already tackled what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history, filing charges against 1,561 individuals. Of that total, 1,028 defendants so far have been sentenced, with 645 sentenced to time in prison and another 143 sentenced to home detention. President-elect Trump vowed throughout his campaign to shut down pending investigations and reverse that work, insisting he would pardon most Jan. 6 defendants. At a CNN town hall in May 2023, Trump said, “I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control.” He repeatedly insisted he would “absolutely” pardon defendants and regularly compared their struggles to his own legal troubles. It was not one of his more popular campaign promises: according to a new poll from Ipsos, 64% of Americans oppose pardoning Jan. 6 protesters. The question of how broad Trump’s pardons will be and what specific form they might take is one that could define his first days in office. So, in order to get a better grasp on Trump’s decision-making process and learn what he might do when he returns to the Oval Office, Nightly spoke with POLITICO reporter Kyle Cheney, who has closely tracked the story of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and the legal fallout. This interview has been edited. What has Trump said or done as president-elect with regards to pardoning Jan. 6 defendants? Since he’s been elected, Trump hasn’t said much about how he plans to help Jan. 6 defendants. He made some slightly varying promises during the campaign about pardoning many of them, but it’s unclear whether he intends to simply blanket pardon the roughly 1,600 defendants (and their yet-to-be-charged compatriots) or take a more nuanced approach that could leave cases pending against some of those who assaulted police or committed other felonies. Are there any cases in particular that stand out? And is there an expectation for a blanket pardon for all defendants or only some? There’s no expectation at the moment. Many supporters in Trump’s base — especially those closest to Jan. 6 defendants — have called for a blanket pardon, suggesting it would be fruitless to try to parse the details of each case. But Trump himself has not said what his intention is. What are the Jan. 6 defendants expecting? Defendants are uniformly eager for some kind of clemency — whether it’s a full pardon, a commutation of sentencing or even simply a decision by the Justice Department to pause cases and eventually drop charges. Many of them are likely to get their wish, but the details and timing are still murky. Some of them have grown a bit frustrated that Trump hasn’t simply said out loud what his plan is. If he did that, it might help judges begin to prioritize which cases to pause or which to continue advancing. What is the timing here? When might he start pardoning defendants or how long might it take? There’s no roadmap. Trump could pardon them all the minute he takes the oath of office or he could wait until his attorney general and U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. are confirmed. He could make some initial clemency decisions quickly while deferring on the more difficult assault cases. Are there any indicators in Trump’s high-profile law enforcement nominations that give us a hint on how he plans to handle this issue? The Matt Gaetz nomination for attorney general, despite its ultimate failure, was a pretty good indication that Trump planned to take a maximalist approach on pardons. Gaetz has called for using pardon authority for Jan. 6 defendants and had floated conspiracy theories that the federal government was largely responsible for the riot. Pam Bondi [Trump’s pick for attorney general after Gaetz withdrew last week] is an unknown quantity on this issue but is a Trump loyalist and expected to align with his view. What are some of the political calculations that Trump has to keep in mind? Though pardons are widely expected, setting free a large group of people convicted of assaulting police could have repercussions — and it would be an interesting use of political capital that has already seen its limits with the collapse of the Gaetz nomination. Beyond a hardcore group of supporters who say Trump must pardon every Jan. 6 defendant on day one, I would expect Trump to take a slower approach to those facing the most serious charges of violence. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at slatson@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @samanthalatson.
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