WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans Tuesday blocked a resolution condemning pardons for supporters of President Donald Trump who violently attacked and injured police officers when they broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray requested unanimous consent for the resolution on the floor but was met with opposition from Majority Whip John Barrasso.
Unanimous consent is a common route senators take for simple resolutions, military nominations and other actions, but adoption can be blocked by just one senator.
Hours after his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump commuted the prison sentences for 14 of the most serious offenders on Jan. 6, including leaders of the paramilitary groups the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. Simultaneously he granted a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to the rest of the approximately 1,560 defendants.
Murray, who represents Washington state, said Trump’s decision to pardon the violent defendants is “truly an unthinkable attempt to erase the facts of that day.”
“It is a betrayal of the law enforcement that protected all of us that day and a dangerous endorsement of political violence, telling criminals that you can beat cops within an inch of their lives as long as it’s in service to Donald Trump,” Murray said.
All 47 Democratic and independent senators co-sponsored the 19-word resolution that “disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police officers.”
Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, blocked the measure. He argued that “Democrats do not want a serious debate here about the use of presidential pardon power” because former President Joe Biden had granted thousands of pardons and commutations before leaving office.
“If they did want a serious conversation, they would talk about Joe Biden’s pardons, over 8,000 of them,” Barrasso said. “The previous president used his final days in office to grant clemency to 37 of 40 of the worst killers on death row.”
Biden set the record for the most pardons and commutations, granting clemency to thousands of nonviolent drug offenders. The former president, whose opposition to capital punishment is well documented, commuted the death sentences for 37 federal inmates, who will now serve life sentences instead. He left three inmates on death row.
Just before leaving the White House, Biden granted preemptive pardons to all members who sat on the congressional committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack, as well as the four police officers who testified before the panel.
He also preemptively pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci and retired Gen. Mark Milley, both of whom have been the target of Trump’s threats for retribution and threats from the general public.
Biden drew criticism in early December for pardoning his son, Hunter, who was convicted on federal gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax violations. In his final moments in office, Biden granted preemptive pardons to five members of his family.
Over 140 U.S. Capitol Police and Washington Metropolitan Police officers were injured that day, according to the Department of Justice.
Several other Democratic senators spoke on the floor about specific assaults on law enforcement on Jan. 6, and the four officers who died by suicide in the days following the attack.
“How does this line up with backing the blue? I don’t get it,” said Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
States Newsroom approached nearly two dozen Republican senators the day after Trump issued the pardons for comment about clemency for the violent offenders.
With just a few exceptions, nearly all either refused to talk, deflected to criticize Biden’s pardons or said they hadn’t read Trump’s 334-word order to free the defendants from their punishments.
Of all the defendants, 608 were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement, including 174 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Nearly a third pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement, and 69 pleaded guilty to doing so with a blatant or improvised weapon, including pieces of furniture the rioters destroyed inside the Capitol and police officers’ own riot shields.
Last updated 6:24 p.m., Jan. 28, 2025
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.