Trump pardons people charged over US Capitol riot

Source: X
US President Donald Trump has put pen to paper after his swearing in to pardon nearly 1600 supporters who stormed the US Capitol in 2021.
The release of prisoners was Trump’s sweeping gesture to the people who tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
The 47th American President signed a pile of executive orders on the Oval Office desk, including declaring a “national emergency” on the US southern border and withdrawing from the World Health Organisation.
He granted Chinese-owned app TikTok an extra 75 days before a ban mandated by a law passed in the US last year takes effect.
During the signing, Trump said he would impose 25 per cent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on February 1.
Later, Trump and wife Melania shared the first dance at the Commander in Chief inauguration ball — one of three galas he will attend on Monday night (local time).
Source: X
On the rioters, some were expected to be released within hours of Trump’s executive order, including the leader of the Proud Boys far-right group.
“We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said on Tuesday (AEDT).
“We’re expecting it.”
Trump said six defendants would have their sentences shortened.
The moves fulfil a campaign promise to help supporters who were charged and, in many cases, imprisoned for crimes committed during the riot against Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Democrat and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the pardons were an “outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma” protecting the Capitol.
“It is shameful that the President has decided to make one of his top priorities the abandonment and betrayal of police officers who put their lives on the line to stop an attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power,” wrote Pelosi on X.
Pelosi was House Speaker at the time of the riots, and the insurgents invaded her office after storming the building.
Some federal inmates serving January 6-related sentences could be released as soon as Monday (US time), a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson confirmed.

Hundreds of people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 are being pardoned. Photo: AAP
A lawyer for the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group, Enrique Tarrio, said he expected his client to be released from federal prison.
Tarrio is serving a 22-year sentence, the longest of anyone criminally charged in the riot, for seditious conspiracy.
He was found guilty of plotting to violently oppose the transfer of power after the 2020 election.
Lawyer Nayib Hassan said he was not sure if Tarrio would receive a full pardon or a commutation cutting short his sentence. His mother also posted on X that Tarrio would be released.
-with AAP