As one of his first official acts following his inauguration on January 20, US President Donald Trump issued pardons to nearly all of the 1,600 criminal defendants charged with involvement in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Did.
Trump previously referred to them as “J6 hostages.”
The pardoned individuals include hundreds who have confessed to crimes committed on January 6. Several others have been convicted because they behaved violently toward police and other security personnel.
break with tradition
Experts say the blanket pardon was an extraordinary move on Trump’s part so early in his tenure.
“A pardon is generally thought of as something that happens at the end of an administration,” said Amy Ghosh, a government law expert and partner in the public policy practice of international law firm Pillsbury.
“Historically, you don’t see a lot of attention given to pardons in day-one actions,” he told DW, although sometimes presidents will sign pardons throughout their tenure, especially with respect to that legislation. Which removes a certain action from the category of crime.”
This was not the case for those convicted in connection with the January 6 attacks: attacking police officers is a serious crime under US law.
So why did Trump sign a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” as stated his order, For almost all participants in the attack on the Capitol?
typical trump style
Trump has always said that the criminal defendants were merely victims of his opponents’ campaign.
In the first TV interview he gave in his second term – with Trump-friendly broadcaster Fox News – he spoke of unnecessarily harsh prison conditions faced by convicted people. He also said they were just “protesting the vote, and you should be allowed to protest the vote.”
When the host suggested the protesters should not be allowed to enter the Capitol, Trump said the majority of the people were “absolutely innocent.”
Joseph Margulies, professor of the practice of government at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, says it is impossible to know whether Trump truly believes this, whether the pardons are an act of political calculation or whether they are a mixture of both.
But, Margulies says, the pardon fits well with Trump’s overall style. “Trump’s particular brand of powerful populism and in-your-face nationalism thrives on some conventions taking positions that run afoul of him,” Margulies said.
“That narrative of not just ignoring traditions but destroying them is their brand. And doing it in a way that attempts to rewrite history in a way that’s favorable to their base. And it [the pardons] There’s a piece with that,” he said.
Biased apology?
Bernadette Meyler, a law professor at Stanford University and a scholar of British and American constitutional law, argues that Trump’s pardons were “more like an amnesty than an individual pardon.”
“This is because it was collective in nature and did not specify the specific crimes for which individuals were pardoned,” he wrote in an e-mail to DW.
“The extraordinary nature of this pardon is how it politically emboldened those on Trump’s own side,” Meyler wrote.
Who was forgiven?
The culprits were mostly Trump supporters who believed his lie – which has been confirmed by multiple courts – that the Democrats had “stole” the 2020 election and that he, Trump, was the true winner.
On January 6, 2021, congressional lawmakers were attending the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory when an angry mob broke into the Capitol building. Shortly before this, Trump had given a speech nearby in which he reiterated that he was the winner and called on his supporters to march on the Capitol.
Four Trump supporters died before or during the attack. A police officer suffered two strokes in the wake of the incidents and died shortly afterwards.
Four other police officers at the scene committed suicide in the weeks and months following the Capitol attack.
Trump was officially accused of inciting insurrection by the House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, but acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate.
Breaking all laws is not the same?
The U.S. president’s authority to issue pardons is based on the realization that “the law can be cruel,” Margulies said. The President has the power to show mercy,
But what message does it send when the President shows this mercy to supporters who violently stormed the US Capitol?
Bernadette Meyler wrote, “Recent pardons have significantly weakened the rule of law in America.”
“I think we can expect that government officials as well as regular people will feel authorized to act illegally in the service of Trump’s policy goals (including his immigration policy) and expect that they will be forgiven. Will be given.”
dangerous example
Margulies stated that the pardon is not a commentary on the rule of law in the US, however, it is not as neutral as many believe.
“If you take a more critical approach to the rule of law […]You believe that the rule of law is always political. “Undoubtedly, in this case the rule of law has been manipulated for political gain.”
He said, “This particular use of the pardon power is extraordinary. But it’s not a comment on the rule of law, it’s a comment on Donald Trump.” But according to Margulies, Trump’s recent pardons will have far-reaching consequences, because they will change what people expect as “reasonable or normal.”
“Anytime you drop standards, it becomes easier to repeat that drop,” he said. “The degradation of norms is not cost-free.”
This article was originally written in German.
