TRUMP PARDONS 1500 CAPITOL RIOTERS
When United States President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Monday, he didn’t wait long to get down to business.
A few hours after taking office, he pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who was arrested at the Capitol on 6 January 2021. The rioters stormed the building hoping to overturn the results of the 2020 election in which Trump lost to former President Joe Biden.
Besides the pardoning, he also ordered that all pending criminal cases against the Capitol riot defendants be dropped immediately.
At a White House ceremony on the day of his inauguration, Trump referred to the rioters as “hostages” and said that he had granted “full pardons” to more then 1,500 defendants.
During his election campaign, Trump mentioned on several occasions that he will pardon those who participated in the riot. During his campaign speeches he referred to them as “patriots” and “political prisoners”.
During the attack on the Capitol, more than 140 police officers were injured. The rioters used flagpoles, baseball bats, hockey sticks, canisters of bear spray, and Tasers to gain access.
The pardoning of these rioters haven’t gone down well with Democrats, but Biden also took advantage of pardoning those that mattered to him.
During his last few weeks of Presidency, Biden pardoned his own son for gun and tax evasion convictions, as well as four other family members.
Image credit: CNN