[The federal judges in Washington, D.C. who handled hundreds of cases related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s mass clemency for convicted rioters. In court orders, the judges described the rioters as “poor losers” and memorialized the “blood, feces, and terror” they caused.
Tanya Chutkan, the judge who oversaw Trump’s 2020 election federal criminal case, wrote in one order, “Cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.”
Beryl Howell, another judge, wrote, “No ‘process of national reconciliation’ can begin when poor losers, whose preferred candidate loses an election, are glorified for disrupting a constitutionally mandated proceeding in Congress and doing so with impunity. No ‘national injustice’ occurred here… That merely raises the dangerous specter of future lawless conduct by other poor losers and undermines the rule of law.”
Despite Trump’s executive order to end “a grave national injustice” and begin a “process of national reconciliation,” the judges argue that the pardons and commutations are not a legitimate attempt to heal the nation. Instead, they believe it is a way for Trump to further divide the country and undermine the rule of law.
The judges’ language also serves as a rebuke to Trump and other Republicans who are celebrating the pardons, which has led to the release of convicted rioters from federal prisons.
The judges have dismissed some of the cases, but not all, and have refused to grant the Justice Department’s request to dismiss others with prejudice. They have also spoken out against the pardons, saying they will not be a part of efforts to rewrite history or undermine the rule of law.
In contrast, many Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have continued to defend the pardons and have even celebrated them as a form of redemption. Johnson announced a new select subcommittee to continue investigating the January 6 attack, and some Republican lawmakers have met with January 6 defendants and their supporters.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is notifying some of the police officers who testified in court that the January 6 defendants are being released from prison. This has caused outrage among some of the officers, who feel that their safety is still at risk despite the pardons and commutations.
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