Trump said he would pardon Jan. 6 rioters. How does that power work?
Hundreds of people have been imprisoned over the past four years for their roles in the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Now, with Donald Trump about to take office as president, dozens of violent rioters are pinning their hopes on Trump’s promise to issue pardons for the attack. Such a move would energize America’s far right, experts told USA TODAY.
I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control,” Trump said at a May 11, 2023 CNN Town Hall. Later on he added “I would say it will be a large portion of them and it would be early on.
What Trump said about pardoning Jan. 6 rioters and special counsel Jack Smith
The president-elect has said on the campaign trail and social media that one of the first acts of his second term would be to free hundreds of people convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as Congress was certifying the 2020 presidential election. More than 1,500 people have been charged with crimes connected to the attack.
Trump also said he would fire special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” of returning to the White House. Smith is currently winding down two cases the Department of Justice brought against Trump: one about his attempts to hold onto power in 2020 that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack and the other about his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Trump’s pardoning power has wide-ranging implications
According to legal scholar Wehle, the Constitution gives the President the power to grant reprieves and pardons, and it puts no express limits on a pardon.
Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore Law School and the author of Pardon Power: How The Pardon System Works—And Why, said that while Supreme Court case law puts some constraints on the pardoning power, “there is no law that would limit Donald Trump’s ability to pardon the people who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection and ended up embroiled in the criminal justice system,” she added.
Beyond that, Wehle said that his pardoning power paired with the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year to grant immunity for official presidential actions, is “sort of a recipe for, you know, a massive criminal enterprise in the White House.”
Wehle said Trump could direct people in administration to commit crimes on his behalf and pardon them after the fact.
“The rules are now lifted. And this is a president who has promised with vitriol to prosecute and go after people who who he believes have, you know, prosecuted him in unfair ways,” Wehle said. “So I think we can take him at his word, or at least we should be prepared for that.”
