A group advocating for Jan. 6 prisoners says it is preparing for mass commutations following President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month.
Suzanne Monk, founder of the J6 Pardon Project, stated that her organization has been collaborating with President Trump’s transition team since November. She says they have been assured that individuals charged in connection with the January 6 events will be granted blanket clemency on the first day of the new administration, the Washington Times reported.
Monk’s group, along with other pro-January 6 organizations, is organizing volunteers to assist those being released from prisons nationwide. They aim to offer support in areas such as clothing, food, transportation, and reconnecting with family and loved ones, the outlet said.
“This is such a massive undertaking that it’s just going to have to be done like we’ve done everything else in the J6 community, the J6 family is going to come together. We’re going to scoop everybody up, and we’re going to make sure what needs to get done gets done,” she told the outlet.
Trump has pledged to pardon those currently imprisoned for their involvement in the January 6 events. He recently indicated that his planned pardons might extend to everyone charged and convicted, regardless of the specific offenses involved.
Trump has pledged to pardon those currently imprisoned for their involvement in the January 6 events. He recently indicated that his planned pardons might extend to everyone charged and convicted, regardless of the specific offenses involved.
“People that didn’t even walk into the building are in jail right now. So, we’ll be looking at the whole thing but I’ll be making major pardons,” Trump told reporters during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate last week, the Times noted.
The commitment to grant pardons to individuals associated with the Capitol riot faced significant backlash from Democrats and Trump critics.
“It is shamefully, utterly outrageous that the president is considering pardons for these rioters who broke the law [and] attacked our police officers on Jan. 6,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said. “Pardoning the criminals who assaulted police officers and tried to halt the Democratic process would be a dangerous endorsement of political violence.”
Monk collaborates with Treniss Evans of Condemned USA, a legal advocacy group supporting January 6 defendants. Evans has been acting as the intermediary between the Trump transition team and Monk’s organization.
According to Evans, Trump intends to “clear the jails of J-Sixers” via commutations immediately following the inauguration, with pardons to follow in the subsequent days, the Times added.
“This is what they’re telling us, and it’s been confirmed by other individuals,” she said. “And just, logically, that makes a lot of sense that President Trump cannot in good conscience continue the incarceration and punishment of individuals who he is seeking to help and pardon,” Monk said.
“He does not want any of that under his administration. So, they intend to clear the jails with commutations first … and then allow the pardoning process to unfold in the necessary time frame after that,” she added.
Over 1,500 people connected to the riot have been charged with crimes, and more than 1,000 pled guilty to either felonies or misdemeanors, according to the Biden-Harris Justice Department, which is continuing to prosecute suspects even as their administration winds down.
“Jan. 6 trials, guilty pleas and sentencings have continued chugging along in Washington’s federal court despite Trump’s promise to pardon rioters, whom he has called ‘political prisoners’ and ‘hostages’ he contends were treated too harshly,” The Associated Press reported last week.
By comparison, Trump and Republicans have countered that hardly anyone was prosecuted during the hundreds of riots following the death of George Floyd leading up to the 2020 election, including several that occurred in Washington, D.C., outside of the White House.
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