šŸ”’ The Economist: Donald Trump has rewritten the history of January 6th

Key topics

  • Trump pardons nearly 1,600 January 6th rioters, sparking controversy.
  • Proud Boys leader Tarrio and others regain freedoms, vow to “play the game.”
  • Critics see pardons as endorsing Capitol violence; political violence rises.

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From The Economist, published under licence. The original article can be found on www.economist.com

Ā© 2024 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.

The Economist

By pardoning violent offenders, he ignored his own teamā€™s advice ___STEADY_PAYWALL___

This is a big one,ā€ Donald Trump said as he signed a clemency order for nearly 1,600 January 6th rioters just hours after being sworn into office. By evening Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, who had served three years of a 22-year sentence in federal prison for choreographing the attack on the Capitol in 2021, was in a holding cell in Louisiana awaiting release. Back in Miami, Mr Tarrio says a full pardon was what he expected ā€œfrom day one after the electionā€.

The plans he made for life after liberation wonā€™t start just yet. His first day home is ā€œa moment of zenā€ before he figures out what is next for him and for the Proud Boys. To those who say that the pardons represent a whitewashing of what happened on January 6th, Mr Tarrio replies that his imprisonment in the first place was an injustice. ā€œI understand their game, you take the opponentsā€™ pieces off the board,ā€ he says. ā€œAnd Iā€™m down to play that game, right? But weā€™re not at that point yet.ā€ He is not ā€œcalling for itā€, but he means that his team too can lock people up.

Mr Trumpā€™s amnesty was more sweeping than its beneficiaries had expected. ā€œThis is leaps and bounds better than I could have hoped,ā€ says John Kinsman, a Proud Boy who served four years in prison. ā€œNever in a million yearsā€ did he think that Mr Trump would set every January 6th ā€œhostageā€ free. All but 14 leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, a militia, who breached the Capitol building, were granted full pardons. Their pardons lift penalties that typically arise from felony convictions, such as restrictions on buying guns, visiting certain foreign countries and, in some states, voting. Those who werenā€™t pardoned had their sentences commuted. In their cases, Mr Trump said, his team needed to do ā€œfurther researchā€.

The outcome seemed surprising because a few days earlier J.D. Vance, now the vice-president, told viewers on Fox News that ā€œif you committed violence on that day obviously you shouldnā€™t be pardoned.ā€ Yet many who had were. Pam Bondi, Mr Trumpā€™s nominee to lead the Department of Justice (DoJ), echoed Mr Vanceā€™s restraint. The fact that Mr Trump overruled them suggests that the scope of his final decision was his own idea. Mr Trump said those imprisoned had served enough time.

To some on the inside, Mr Trumpā€™s actions only reinforce their belief that he sought on January 6th to goad his supporters to sack the Capitol. ā€œThis is one of the most candid acknowledgments that what happened that day is what he intended,ā€ says a senior DoJ lawyer. It is indeed reasonable to see the pardons as an endorsement of the mob violence that took place. In the summary of his now-dismissed case, published on January 7th this year, Jack Smith, the special counsel who investigated Mr Trumpā€™s role, wrote that his office had sufficient evidence to ā€œobtain and sustain a convictionā€. But Mr Trump has now made sure that the meaning of the January 6th assault will be long contested. To many of the presidentā€™s supporters, the pardons rectify an injustice arising from overreach by Mr Trumpā€™s foes.

It is unarguable that soon hundreds of people who punched police, smashed windows and broke through barricades will be home. Though many of them are ordinary doctors and businessmen, at least 200 have pledged allegiance to a militia-like group. In interviews Proud Boys across America say that jail time has subdued their movementā€”and watchdog groups like Miami Against Fascism agree that their power has been ā€œseverely diminishedā€.

Nonetheless political violence, both on the left and the right, has increased since 2021; there were two lone-wolf attempts on Mr Trumpā€™s life during the campaign. According to an analysis by Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, the DoJ prosecuted 26 threats against members of Congress between 2022 and 2023. Yet Mr Trumpā€™s administration may not pursue domestic radicals as forcefully as Joe Bidenā€™s administration did.

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