Donald Trump wants to pardon masses of participants in the insurrection on January 6, 2021 on his first day as US President. For now, however, the trials and convictions continue – including by judges appointed by Trump.
Since Donald Trump's election victory a good two weeks ago, the US President-elect has announced new and sometimes very controversial personnel decisions almost every day. Loyal Trump supporters are given key positions – such as the right-wing hardliner Matt Gaetz, who was supposed to become Minister of Justice but then withdrew.
The personal details could be related to the fact that Trump has announced radical decisions for the first day of his term in office: he wants to deport people without a residence permit en masse and pardon those who took part in the storming of the Capitol, which took place shortly before the handover of power to Joe Biden in 2021.
“Frustrating and disappointing”
Ironically, a US federal judge appointed by Trump spoke out against possible pardons for those involved in the insurrection. It would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if the president-elect pardoned rioters en masse, Judge Carl Nichols said during a court hearing, according to the transcript. “But that's not my decision,” he added, as reported by the AP news agency.
Spurred on by Trump's claims that his election victory had been stolen, his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. Nichols is leading the trial against an alleged participant who is accused of attacks on police officers.
The defendant posted a few hours after Trump's election victory that he would be free on the day of his inauguration. Then he and other “political prisoners” from January 6th could “finally return home.”
Some judges also recently argued that the trials were a waste of money because of the announced pardons and should not be continued.
The majority of processes continue
However, most judges do not agree with such demands and take a similar position to Nichols. A man convicted of attacks on police officers said at his sentencing shortly after the election that he expected “patriotism pardons” for the Capitol stormers, as the US broadcaster CNN reported. Presiding judge Dabney Friedrich, who was also appointed by Trump, criticized the man as delusional. She sentenced him to eight years in prison.
More than 1,500 people have been charged and hundreds convicted over the January 6 violence. Former President Trump, on the other hand, still praises those involved as patriots. During the election campaign, he gave sometimes contradictory information about who and how many convicts he wanted to pardon.
Trump told Time magazine he was considering pardoning everyone. But he later added: “If someone was evil and mean, I would look at it differently.” In an interview with broadcaster NBC, however, he did not rule out Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the right-wing extremist “Proud Boys”, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy.
Trump's influence on the judiciary
As president, Trump has broad authority to issue mass pardons. However, he will most likely not have to make use of this in relation to the trials against himself. Three of the four criminal proceedings are closed or postponed. And in the New York trial over hush money to a porn actress, in which Trump has already been convicted, the announcement of the sentence will probably only be announced after his four years in office.
During his first term, Trump appointed three new justices to the nine-member Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States. The court's conservative majority not only overturned federal abortion laws, but also tightened the rules for sentencing those involved in the storming of the Capitol. Critics fear that Trump could influence the legal system with future appointments of judges and followers.
