Donald Trump has revealed he plans to pardon some of the rioters who stormed the US Capitol in a bid to overturn the 2020 election result.
President-elect Trump said he will be ‘acting very quickly’ on pardons for some of the defendants accused of the attack on the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
He told NBC News he will ‘look at individual cases’ of the defendants on his ‘first day.’
However, he said there ‘may be some exceptions’ for people who were ‘radical’ or ‘crazy.’
Trump claimed the imprisoned Capitol rioters are ‘living in hell,’ alleging that they are ‘in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.’
More than 1,251 defendants have been convicted or pleaded guilty in the Washington DC attack out of at least 1,572 defendants who were charged, the broadcaster reports.
At least 645 defendants were given sentences ranging from a couple of days to 22 years behind bars.
When asked about pardoning rioters who had pleaded guilty, including an assault on police officers, Trump said they ‘had no choice.’
The 78-year-old attacked the justice system during his interview, suggesting that some of the attackers who pleaded guilty were pressured into doing so.
‘I know the system. The system’s a very corrupt system,’ he claimed.
‘They say to a guy, ‘You’re going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.’ And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. For two years, they’ve been destroyed. But the system is a very nasty system,’ he said.
Five people died after right-wing rioters stormed the capitol building in Washington DC following the victory of President Joe Biden following calls to overturn the election result.
Trump has been accused of inciting the riots through his actions.
US prosecutors have now dismissed criminal charges against the President-elect due to the Constitution which ‘requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated,’ special counsel Jack Smith said last month.
The 2020 election case was one of the most serious legal threats Trump faced as he headed into the US Elections in early November.
Trump became the first US President to be convicted of a felony after he was found guilty in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial in May.
He was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records over a $130,000 payment his ex-fixer Michale Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s intention to issue pardons has emboldened some of the defendants in court recently.
One January 6th defendant, Philip Sean Grillo, shouted after his sentencing that ‘Trump’s gonna pardon me anyways’ as he was being handcuffed, CNN reported.
The outgoing US President Joe Biden is thought to have considered pre-emptive pardons to protect critics of Trump when he returns to the Oval Office.
Biden is said to have considered the possibility of issuing pardons for senior White House staff, although no names have been officially revealed, according to sources cited by CBS.
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