Trump pardons people convicted in the Jan. 6 riot on 1st day in office
Trump signs additional executive orders in Oval Office
President Donald Trump continued signing additional executive orders after returning to the Oval Office on Monday. The sweeping orders included delaying TikTok's ban for 75 days in order to find a U.S. buyer, moving to withdraw from the World Health Organization, and working to end birthright citizenship.
WASHINGTON - On his first day in office, President Donald Trump granted pardons to about 1,500 people convicted of nonviolent offenses related to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
Additionally, Trump commuted another 14 people who participated in the Capitol riot.
"These are the hostages," he said while signing the paperwork in the Oval Office. Trump said he hopes many are freed shortly.
Among those set to be released from prison are defendants captured on camera committing violent attacks on law enforcement as lawmakers met to certify President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. Leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups who were found of seditious conspiracy in the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department will also be freed from prison after having their sentences commuted. Trump is directing the attorney general to seek the dismissal of about 450 pending cases.
The backstory:
January 6 rioters who pleaded guilty or were found guilty at trial are still convicted criminals. However, a pardon forgives the offense and restores the individual’s civil rights, including gun ownership or voting rights. Moreover, for convicted rioters on probation, a pardon will end their probation early. And rioters who got a pardon and are currently in prison will be released, CNN reported.
The Department of Justice is expected to move in court to dismiss cases that have not yet gone to trial.
Trump promised once he was sworn in to office on Jan. 20 that he would grant clemency to some of his supporters who took part in the failed attempt at the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
RELATED: Supreme Court makes it harder to charge Jan. 6 defendants with obstruction
During a Dec. 2024 interview on "Meet the Press," Trump said he would issue pardons "very quickly" saying that "those people have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look. But, you know, if somebody was radical, crazy," the Associated Press reported.
![](https://images.foxtv.com/static.livenowfox.com/www.livenowfox.com/content/uploads/2025/01/932/524/trump-eo-signing.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
US President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the WHite House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
VP J.D. Vance weighs in
What they're saying:
Vice President J.D. Vance insisted in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that the pardon question is "very simple," saying those who "protested peacefully" should be pardoned and "if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned." He later said there was a "bit of a gray area" in some cases.
Vance received criticism from supporters of the Capitol rioters that his stance didn’t go far enough to free all the individuals convicted.
RELATED: Jan. 6 prosecutions: A look at cases, charges by the numbers
He responded to the backlash with a Jan. 12 post on X, formerly Twitter, writing "I’ve been defending these guys for years. The president saying he’ll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walkback," Vance said. "I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial."
How many rioters have been charged and sentenced?
By the numbers:
More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the siege that left more than 100 police officers injured, the Associated Press reported.
Prosecutors secured roughly 1,270 convictions from the Capitol attack so far with 300 cases pending. Approximately 55% of Jan. 6 prosecutions are misdemeanor cases, with charges like disorderly conduct or trespassing, per the Department of Justice. A majority of the people convicted for their roles in the Capitol attack were sentenced to probation, or a few months in prison and were already released.
Hundreds of trials have occurred since the riot, and the Department of Justice noted in 2024 said that 98 people have been found guilty at contested trials, and another 24 defendants were convicted.
RELATED: Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio gets record 22 years in prison for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy
The DOJ explained that 51 of the 122 defendants were found guilty of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or obstructing officers during a civil disorder, which are felonies, including a person sentenced to over 14 years in prison.
Roughly 561 people have been sentenced, with 335 receiving jail time. Per the DOJ, 119 defendants were sentenced to home detention, including 19 who also received a prison sentence.
RELATED: Proud Boy who smashed Capitol window on Jan. 6 gets 10 years in prison, then declares, ‘Trump won!’
The longest sentence was handed down to Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2023 after being convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden.
Tarrio’s sentence is the longest so far among the Capitol riot cases, eclipsing the 18-year sentences that Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and one-time Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean both received after juries convicted them of seditious conspiracy and other charges, the AP reported.
What’s the length of time it takes for release from jail after a pardon?
Individual inmates can be released from custody on the same day a pardon is granted, while larger-scale clemency actions by a president can take more time to institute, Reuters reported.
Since the Jan. 20 Inauguration Day is a federal holiday and the Bureau of Prisons offices are closed, it will not be able to start processing any of President Donald Trump's clemency orders until the following day.
What’s the difference between a commutation of a sentence and a pardon?
A commutation of a sentence and pardon are different forms of executive clemency, which is a term that applies to the president’s constitutional power to exercise leniency toward persons who have committed federal crimes.
RELATED: 4 Oath Keepers convicted in Jan. 6 Capitol riot
According to the Department of Justice, a commutation of sentence reduces a sentence, either totally or partially, that is then being served, but it does not change the fact of conviction, imply innocence, or remove civil disabilities that apply to the convicted person as a result of the criminal conviction.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Associated Press, the Department of Justice website, Reuters, CNN, and previous FOX Television Stations reporting. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.