Donald Trump's allies are growing nervous about his silence on the possibility of pardoning his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Federal judges have been allowing Jan. 6 cases to proceed and prosecutors have even brought a handful of news ones since Election Day, even though defendants have tried to delay their cases past Inauguration Day in the belief that Trump will follow through on his campaign promise of clemency, reported Politico.
“President Trump will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis,” said incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
That hasn't been enough to assure the defendants and their supporters.
“It is just a phrase,” wrote Suzzanne Monk, a longtime advocate for Jan. 6 defendants. "‘Case by case,’ it isn’t a policy, or a strategy, or anything. It is a catch phrase the media is using to push the ‘only some will be pardoned’ narrative.”
Trump suggested on the campaign trail that he would pardon nearly all of the rioters, including those who assaulted police officers, although he has also said he might not extend clemency to anyone who "got out of control," and his silence on the matter since the election has triggered anxiety for the defendants and their supporters.
“[H]onestly people have suffered for 4 years and many are still in flux and terrified," wrote Trump ally Brandon Straka, who spent three months in home detention after pleading guilty to Jan. 6 misdemeanors. "A word of reassurance from the top would go a long way for people. The silence on the issue just exacerbates the victims’ anxiety. Hopefully some kind of messaging comes soon.”
The Jan. 6 defendants are also unsure whether they trust attorney general nominee Pam Bondi to shut down criminal investigations into the Capitol riot.
“I know she will take this issue very seriously,” John Lauro, one of Trump’s personal lawyers, in an interview with Jan. 6 advocate Julie Kelly. “Knowing her like I do, she will ensure every person in the criminal justice system has been dealt with fairly and justly.
Monk, who leads the J6 Pardon Project, has assured her allies she's trying to open a line of communication with Bondi, but Kari Hoffman, the wife of jailed ritoer Luke Hoffman, said "we are literally holding our breath" awaiting a pardon from Trump, and others are similarly antsy.
“The only reason that myself and a million others like me were in DC on January 6th is because @realDonaldTrump called us there," said Cowboys for Trump head Couy Griffin, who was one of the first Jan. 6 defendants to go to trial. "As the sitting President Donald Trump specifically told us that China had stolen the election. Now we sit on the edge of our seats in suspense as we pray to be relieved and rectified."
