By Donald Jeffries
Donald Trump, true to his word, issued blanket pardons to more than half of the protesters who were arrested after the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, 2021. This writer has already heard from two of the J6 defendants who appeared on his “I Protest” podcast, and both are now free. One of them, Eric Clark, was a guest again on last week’s “I Protest.”
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Among those pardoned was Enrique Tarrio, the Hispanic leader of the “white supremacist” Proud Boys. Tarrio, in one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice imaginable, was sentenced to 22 years in prison, despite not even being in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
Joe Biggs, the former Infowars reporter and member of the Proud Boys, faced a 17-year sentence, but has already been processed for release. In addition to the 1,500 pardons, Trump also issued six commutations, which could become pardons.
Shocking reports indicated that some jails were dragging their feet, or even outright refusing to release J6 prisoners. “Revolver News” recently reported:
Reports indicate that D.C. and other jails are slow-walking the process and refusing to release the hostages, which goes against the entire idea of the pardon, which “trumps” all—pun intended.
“Libs of TikTok” tweeting:
D.C. police are refusing to release Jan. 6 political prisoners despite Trump issuing them pardons. Trump needs to have the Department of Justice prosecute anyone not cooperating with official presidential pardons.
This unprecedented refusal to obey the president again revealed the level of discord in this country.
Judges in D.C. and elsewhere are brashly ignoring Trump’s executive order. In California, Judge Jennifer Thurston didn’t react at all, and immediately ordered one of many innocent J6ers to prison on bogus charges stemming from an unconstitutional raid of his home.
All 1,500 of those pardoned were described as nonviolent. It is unclear what will happen to the remaining J6ers. While many hours of Jan. 6 footage remain withheld, unbiased observers have seen more than enough to recognize that the police were the aggressors that day, and whatever attacks on police took place were almost all done in self-defense.
Vice President J.D. Vance had surprised and disappointed many with his pre-inaugural statement that “violent” J6 defendants shouldn’t be pardoned. The “violence” that took place consisted primarily of a few broken windows, and protesters skirmishing with police, who were spraying gas and firing rubber bullets indiscriminately into the crowd.
One of those not pardoned, at least yet, is retired Green Beret Master Sgt. Jeremy Brown. Brown was initially told he was being pardoned, and the processing started, including the notification of his family. Then he was inexplicably told it was a “mistake” and was sent back to his cell. Brown, like so many J6ers, has already been behind bars for over three years.
J6er Ben Martin faces 38 months in prison, from a ridiculous charge associated with a gun belonging to his wife. Some D.C. judges spoke out publicly on Trump’s pardons. Obama appointee Judge Beryl Howell stated,
No “national injustice” occurred here, just as no outcome-determinative election fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election. 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.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of Bill Clinton, made it clear while reluctantly dismissing the charges against a J6 defendant that Trump’s pardons “will not change the truth of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.” She actually had the audacity to quote the “evidence” from that day, including the thousands of hours of video, much of it still purposefully withheld or destroyed by the government, which demonstrates quite clearly that some of the protesters were waved inside by Capitol Police, and that certainly no “insurrection” took place. She also continued to refer to the lie that officers died that day as a result of the protest, which is patently untrue.
Obama appointee Judge Tanya Chukan, who was so transparently biased against Trump in one of his lawfare prosecutions, chimed in:
No pardon can change the tragic truth of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. The dismissal of this case cannot undo the “rampage [that] left multiple people dead, injured more than 140 people, and inflicted millions of dollars in damage. … In hundreds of cases like this one over the past four years, judges in this district have administered justice without fear or favor.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who didn’t attend Trump’s inaugural, called the pardons “shameful,” and waxed rhapsodic over the law enforcement “heroes” who “ensured that democracy survived.” Pelosi declared:
The president’s actions are an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution.
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