Nearly all J6 defendants Trump wants to pardon assaulted police officers: security experts

02 April 2024

Former President Donald Trump has lately leaned into rewriting the history of the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, and has promised on multiple occasions to pardon an unspecified number of defendants sentenced to prison for their participation in the deadly insurrection.

According to New York University Law School's Just Security outlet, Trump has been in communication with Micki Witthoeft — the mother of deceased January 6 participant Ashli Babbitt — about January 6 defendants incarcerated in the Washington, DC jail. On March 22, Trump reportedly discussed "setting these guys free when [Trump] gets in" with Witthoeft, and told her to pass along a message to DC inmates "that they’re on his mind, and when he gets in they’ll get out."

Just Security reported that 27 of the 29 January 6 inmates held in Washington, DC are specifically there on charges of assaulting police officers during the insurrection. And of those 27, 19 have already been convicted, with 10 being convicted by juries and nine pleading guilty of their own volition. Eight are awaiting trial and may currently be negotiating plea deals with the Department of Justice.

"The January 6th DC inmates’ assaults on law enforcement include some of the most disturbing acts of violence at the US Capitol," Just Security's Tom Joscelyn, Fred Wertheimer and Norm Eisen wrote. "One convicted felon helped lead the assault on police guarding the Capitol’s external security perimeter, an 'attack [that] paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds.' Another inmate allegedly threw 'an explosive device that detonated upon at least 25 officers,' causing some of the officers to temporarily lose their hearing."

Just Security listed an FBI Special Agent's statement of facts that listed a litany of crimes committed by the DC inmates.

"Other January 6th inmates held in DC: 'viciously ripped off' an Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer’s mask; assaulted officers 'with an electro-shock device;' allegedly sprayed multiple police officers with a pepper spray; 'struck an MPD officer with a long wooden pole multiple times' and allegedly used a 'crutch and a metal pole' as 'bludgeoning weapons or projectiles against' a 'line of law enforcement officers,'" the statement of facts read. "Still others assaulted officers with their fists, stolen riot shields, makeshift weapons or in other ways."

Among the DC jail defendants, several also have known ties to violent, far-right and paramilitary groups. One is a member of the alt-right street gang The Proud Boys, and another is a member of the Wolverine Watchmen (the group that plotted to kidnap and murder Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer).

"[A]nother [inmate] stood in front of a gallows constructed outside the US Capitol and allegedly said that lawmakers 'need to hang from these motherf---ers,'" wrote Joscelyn, Wertheimer and Eisen.

Trump has promoted Micki Witthoeft's (Ashli Babbitt's mother) vigils for January 6 defendants outside of the DC jail on his Truth Social platform. His conversations with Witthoeft mark a change from his previous attitude toward Babbitt, as it was initially reported he had "no reaction" when hearing about Babbitt's death inside the US Capitol during the insurrection.

During the attack on the capitol, Babbitt — a QAnon adherent who flew from San Diego, California to Washington, DC for the riot and broke past multiple police lines to get all the way to the speaker's lobby — was struck by a single bullet from an officer's gun after she leapt through a window toward members of Congress who were just feet away. She later died from her injuries.

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