Pro-Trump protesters, including Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs, (plaid shirt at the bottom center of the frame,) gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. | Source: Jon Cherry / Getty
A federal judge who was appointed by Donald Trump is now lamenting the prospect of the president-elect granting pardons to convicted perpetrators of the MAGA mob temper tantrum we know as the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols called the very real possibility of Trump dolling out “blanket pardons” to many of the more than 1000 Jan. 6 convicts — who Trump has called “patriots” and stated he was “inclined to pardon many of them” — “beyond frustrating and disappointing,” according to USA Today.
“Blanket pardons for all January 6 defendants or anything close would be beyond frustrating and disappointing, but that’s not my call,” Nichols said Tuesday while postponing the trial for Edward Jacob Lang, a New York MAGA minion who is charged with attacking police who were defending the Capitol. “And the possibility of some pardons, at least, is a very real thing.”
In fact, Today noted that some 140 Capitol police officers were injured during the riot, which would almost be ironic if Trump weren’t such an integrity-deficient hypocrite, because, during his latest campaign, he lied about cops being disallowed by the Biden administration to do their jobs while observing criminal activity, and he promised police officers “immunity from prosecution — which he seems to want to extend to those who brutally attack cops so long as they’re doing so on behalf of their orangey-white nationalist messiah.
From USA Today:
For years, Trump has repeatedly mentioned the potential for pardons.
In September 2022, Trump told Pittsburgh broadcaster Wendy Bell that he would issue full pardons and perhaps an apology to anyone involved in protests on Jan. 6. “We’ll be looking very, very seriously at full pardons because we can’t let that happen,” Trump said. “To many, an apology. They’ve been so badly treated.”
In March 2023, he posted an all-caps message on social media: “LET THE JANUARY 6 PRISONERS GO.”
“I am inclined to pardon many of them,” Trump told CNN in May 2023. “I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control.”
In April 2024, Trump told Time magazine he would “absolutely” consider pardoning every Jan. 6 defendant.
Karoline Leavitt, who Trump has chosen as his White House spokesperson, issued a statement saying he would “make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis.”
Understand: If a Black Lives Matter protester, or a member of an Islamic organization, did so much as park in a “no parking” zone half a block away from a street that was slightly adjacent to the street the U.S. Capitol is on while Trump votes were being certified, MAGA America would’ve been ready to declare war against foreign invaders and/or domestic terrorism. If a single member of any of those groups had attacked a single police officer — let alone 140 — and President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris had even hinted towards granting any pardons at all, Trump, the GOP and all of their constituents would brand them soft on terrorism at best, and advocates for terrorism at worst. There would have been no “case-by-case basis” as far as Trump was concerned. Even a single pardon would have been a slap in the face of police and democracy. These would have been people who hate America. Funny how quickly that narrative changes up when the shoe of brazen “un-American” criminality is on the other foot, right?
Of course, it’s all completely unsurprising coming from the party that has convinced itself that white people are oppressed in America.
These people are not the patriots they claim to be, and they certainly aren’t as opposed to civil unrest as they claimed to be when police injustice and systemic racism are being protested. You just need to put the white — err, uh, right — face on it.
But, MAGA, right?
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