WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he does not believe people who committed violent crimes on January 6, 2021, should be pardoned.
Asked Sunday whether anyone who has attacked law enforcement should be pardoned, Johnson said “no,” then suggested he did not expect that to happen.
“I think what the president has said and Vice President-elect JD Vance has said is that peaceful protesters should be pardoned, but violent criminals should not be pardoned,” Johnson said on “Meet the Press.”
Johnson’s statement was typical. For years, whenever a reporter asks an elected Republican about Trump’s promise to pardon his supporters for the attack on the U.S. Capitol, they say violent offenders should not be given clemency.
Trump’s blanket pardon on Monday night, for anyone convicted of anything related to events at or near the Capitol, did not include exceptions for violent crimes. The only downside was that fourteen members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, groups that led the charge to the Capitol, only had their sentences commuted, while Trump is considering granting a full pardon. They will still be released from prison just like everyone else.
The sweeping act of clemency, essentially an endorsement of political violence, was by far Trump’s most shocking act on his first day back in office. While Republicans praised his other executive actions on border security and government personnel, they remained silent on the pardon.
Even Vance had recently said that such a broad pardon would “clearly” not be appropriate.
“If you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned, and there’s a little bit of gray area there, but we’re very, very committed to seeing equal administration of justice,” Vance said earlier this month on “Fox News Sunday.”
President Donald Trump (left) and Vice President JD Vance (center) had both suggested that the worst offenders charged for their actions on January 6, 2021 would not receive clemency. However, Trump issued a massive pardon for everyone on Monday. Angelina Katsanis/Pool via Getty Images
More than 600 people have been charged with obstructing or assaulting police, including 174 with using a weapon or injuring an officer. according to the Ministry of Justice. They did this after Trump encouraged them to “fight like hell” and go to the Capitol to protest the election that Trump falsely claimed was rigged against him.
Trump himself, in his many public statements about forgiving the rioters over the past four years, often included the caveat that the worst offenders might not get a break.
“If someone was evil and evil, I would look at that differently,” Trump said in April.
On Monday, Trump refused to distinguish between different levels of insult and falsely suggested that his supporters had only risen up because they were being manipulated by shadowy agents of Trump’s political enemies.
“There were outside agitators involved, and of course the FBI was involved,” Trump said at the White House.
The Justice Department’s Inspector General, an independent watchdog, reported last month that no undercover FBI agents were involved in the riot and that no confidential informants, some of whom had joined extremist groups, had been assigned by the FBI to encourage illegal behavior. The report amounted to an authoritative debunking of a conspiracy theory that Republicans have been promoting for years.
Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Justice, Pam Bondi, told lawmakers during her confirmation hearing last week that if she were consulted about pardons, she would review the files, but she still made a point of condemn violence.
“Obviously I haven’t seen any of those files. If confirmed and asked to advise the President, I will review every file. But let me be very clear when I speak to you: I condemn any violence against any law enforcement officer in this country,” Bondi said.
Encouraging individual consideration was another way Republicans warned Trump about a blanket pardon for violent rioters.
“I think when it comes to someone who was violent, you have to take it on a person-by-person or case-by-case basis,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told reporters last week. “Not all violence is the same and not all crimes are the same on January 6 or at any other time. So I think for the most part the approach has to be taken on a case-by-case basis.”
But many Republicans have been adamant that rioters who attack police should not be pardoned.
“My own view is that people who have committed crimes — actual crimes — should be prosecuted,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in 2022.
“I would not support shortening sentences for people who have pleaded guilty to crimes,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said at the time.
“I don’t want to emphasize that defiling the Capitol was OK,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that year. “I don’t want to do anything that will make this more likely in the future. I hope they go to jail and have the book thrown at them, because they deserve it.”
In a written statement on Tuesday, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) noted the lack of comment from his Republican colleagues since Trump announced the pardon Monday evening.
“Silence and acquiescence from Republicans in Congress are simply not acceptable; “If they don’t condemn Trump’s actions today, they should never again say they ‘stand blue,'” Goldman said.
Igor Bobic contributed to reporting.