A week after President Donald Trump issued mass pardons for people charged in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building four years ago, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser expressed her concern and disappointment.
“I couldn’t disagree with that act more,” Bowser said, regarding the pardons. “I further am concerned about what it means to empower people to commit violence in our city again.”
Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.
Some of the rioters were armed with poles, bats and bear spray.
They overwhelmed law enforcement, shattered windows and sent lawmakers and aides into hiding. The attack left more than 100 police officers injured.
While pardons were expected, the speed and the scope of the clemency amounted to a stunning dismantling of the Justice Department’s effort to hold participants accountable over what has been described as one of the darkest days in the country’s history.
“We know the vast presidential power when it comes to pardons, and the president chose to exercise them in the most expansive way I think that he could,” Bowser said. “The events of Jan. 6 and the heroism of our officers will never be forgotten; and the despicable acts committed on the Capitol that day can never be forgiven.”
Police were dragged into the crowd and beaten. Rioters used makeshift weapons to attack police, including flagpoles, a crutch and a hockey stick.
Trump had suggested in the weeks leading up to his return to the White House that instead of blanket pardons, he would look at the Jan. 6 defendants on a case-by-case basis. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance had said that people responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot “obviously” should not be pardoned.
Casting the rioters as “patriots” and “hostages,” Trump has claimed they were unfairly treated by the Justice Department.
Trump said the pardons would end “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years” and begin “a process of national reconciliation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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