{"id":127969,"date":"2024-12-12T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/12\/12\/trump-says-hell-begin-jan-6-pardons-the-first-hour-in-office\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:25:12","slug":"trump-says-hell-begin-jan-6-pardons-the-first-hour-in-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/extremism-disinformation\/2024\/12\/12\/trump-says-hell-begin-jan-6-pardons-the-first-hour-in-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he\u2019ll begin Jan. 6 pardons \u2018the first hour\u2019 in office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to pardon people convicted of or charged with crimes for their roles in breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and he will start immediately after taking office in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump won\u2019t do a blanket pardon for everyone, he stipulated. Rather, he plans to issue pardons on a case-by-case basis, he told Time Magazine<\/a> in an interview published Thursday. Time chose Trump as the magazine\u2019s 2024 \u201cPerson of the Year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, we\u2019re going to look at each individual case, and we\u2019re going to do it very quickly, and it\u2019s going to start in the first hour that I get into office,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the approximately 1,400 people who have faced charges for their involvement in the Capitol breach, 222 have military backgrounds, according to data from the <\/a>National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism<\/a>. That number includes two veterans convicted of orchestrating the attack, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio<\/a> and Oath Keepers leader Stuart Rhodes<\/a>. Tarrio was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and Rhodes received 22 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some veterans are among a wave of Jan. 6 defendants who asked the courts in November to delay their cases<\/a> until after Trump\u2019s inauguration, expecting the incoming president to follow through on promises to pardon them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the campaign trail this year, Trump referred to the people convicted for their participation on Jan. 6 as \u201chostages.\u201d At a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists in July, he said they were convicted \u201cby a very tough system.\u201d Trump reiterated those sentiments in the Time Magazine interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve suffered greatly, and in many cases they should not have suffered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t