J6 Pardons: Trump Must Not Go Wobbly

Since Donald Trump’s decisive victory in last month’s presidential elections, the Democrats and their corporate media partners have insisted that it would be a grave mistake for him to pardon the J6 “insurrectionists.” To do so, they tell us, would be an unprecedented abuse of the clemency powers granted to presidents under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. Inevitably, various “news” outlets have commissioned polls purporting to show how unpopular these pardons would be with the public. Recently, for example, Newsweek reported on a Monmouth poll allegedly confirming the proposition that a majority of Americans do not support pardons for the J6 prisoners.

Even if one accepts such surveys at face value — not a particularly wise policy — popularity and justice are not synonyms. Morerover, no one in possession of the facts surrounding the J6 riot can credibly claim that the protestors have received anything resembling justice or even due process under the law.  While very few condone the mayhem at the Capitol that day, it is all but impossible to justify the four-year jihad Merrick Garland’s justice department launched against nearly 1,600 Americans, many of whom never set foot inside the building. Nonetheless, the DOJ’s persecution of the protestors has continued apace after the election, despite President-elect Trump’s widely-publicized pledge to pardon most of them. Julie Kelly provides an example at RealClear Investigations:

The day after the election, an attorney representing Christopher Carnell, who was convicted of nonviolent misdemeanors following a bench trial in February 2024, asked the judge in his case to delay a scheduled hearing based on the possibility of a pardon. “Throughout his campaign, President-elect Trump made multiple clemency promises to the January 6 defendants, particularly to those who were nonviolent participants,” attorney Marina Medvin wrote on Nov. 6. “Mr. Carnell, who was an 18-year-old nonviolent entrant into the Capitol on January 6, is expecting to be relieved of the criminal prosecution that he is currently facing.”

The judge immediately rejected the request for delayed sentencing. Nonetheless, according to a CBS News report, “Waves of U.S. Capitol riot defendants are citing Donald Trump’s election in requests to delay their criminal prosecutions because of his public pledge to pardon some of the people convicted of crimes on Jan. 6, 2021.” The DOJ has resisted such delays by perverting the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial as follows: “There is a public interest in the prompt and efficient administration of justice.” If the prosecutors had a genuine interest in prompt administration of justice, the DOJ would not still be prosecuting J6 cases nearly four years after the event that prosecutors continue to call “the capitol siege.”

The DOJ has not merely pushed forward with J6 prosecutions after the election, it has continued to make arrests pursuant to the riot. CBS quotes Joseph McBride, a defense attorney who has represented a number of J6 defendants: “The Justice Department Is still arresting people, which is nuts and pointless.” It is indeed. Yet, the government prosecutors proudly post their latest arrests on X. At least two people have been arrested this month. The posts can be found here and here. It’s clear that this will continue indefinitely until Merrick Garland is gone, the  DOJ is fumigated by a new AG, and Trump aggressively exercises his pardon power starting Jan. 20. He should ignore the advice of pundits like Dan McLaughlin:

Trump has survived the Democrats’ four-year drumbeat over January 6, which dominated the campaign, to secure the biggest Republican victory in a generation. He even survived a January 6 indictment by Biden’s special Justice Department prosecutor Jack Smith. Clearly, voters are happy to consign the whole sorry chapter to history … But they also elected Trump to end the disorder that prevailed under Biden, and bring sanity to a weaponized justice system which has committed itself to political witch hunts while letting violent criminals go free. Trump needs to break the rotten cycle and end the madness — not perpetuate it.

McLaughlin has it backwards. By issuing pardons to hundreds of people who have clearly been abused by the justice system, Trump will be taking a major step toward ending the madness. If he breaks his pledge to pardon the J6 prisoners, it will allow an egregious injustice to stand and wreck his credibility with the people who voted for him. These people are not insurrectionists — not one has been charged with that crime — nor are they criminals. None carried firearms into the Capitol and the only one who died that day was Ashli Babbitt, a veteran shot by a capitol police officer to whom she presented no serious threat. A majority of the J6 prisoners are guilty of little more than trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Moreover, it’s obvious that millions of Americans agree with this assessment. Trump has long made it clear that he intended to pardon many if not all of the J6 prisoners, and 77.3 million voters cast ballots for him last month. The Democrats, the corporate media, and some weak-kneed Republicans insist that it would be a mistake for him to pardon these people. They’re wrong. Jan. 6, 2021 was hardly America’s finest hour, of course. Nonetheless, the best way to move beyond it is to shut down the endless series of prosecutions, release the political prisoners and get rid of the thugs who put politics before justice.

READ MORE from David Catron:

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