Trump Pardoned Them for Jan. 6 Insurrection, 97 Committed New Crimes
Actions have consequences—unless you get a pardon, in which case you just wait for the next arrest. Turns out, when you hand out free passes to January 6 Capitol rioters, they don’t enroll in pottery classes and become role models. According to damning new data, nearly 100 pardoned insurrectionists have already committed new crimes.
At least 97 of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot have been arrested, charged, or convicted of separate crimes after receiving presidential pardons, according to data from the legal website Lawfare and The New York Times. The study’s numbers are much higher than the public knew, and the specific charges paint an even darker picture of the post-pardon reality.
This past February, January 6 pardon recipient Andrew Paul Johnson was sentenced to life in prison following a child molestation conviction, while Shane Woods was convicted of reckless homicide last year, Lawfare reported. And those are far from isolated cases.
According to the data, at least 14 individuals have been charged with sex crimes or offenses related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and at least six face domestic violence charges. The remaining offenses are equally disturbing.
From violent assaults and illegal firearms possession to at least 20 separate charges for driving under the influence or public intoxication, the lawlessness from those who have already shown what they are capable of—and willing to do on federal grounds—cannot be ignored. But perhaps the most damning part of this trend is that it shouldn’t shock us at all.
Roughly 49% of all federal offenders are rearrested within eight years of release, according to data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Criminologists have long established that stripping away institutional accountability without providing rigorous, structured rehabilitation is a direct recipe for re-offense.
“The pardons closed a chapter for these individuals politically,” said Katherine Pompilio, the study’s author. “What I found is that for a significant number of them, the behavior that defined Jan. 6 didn’t stop when they left the Capitol.”
By treating the January 6 defendants as political martyrs rather than standard offenders, Trump—who issued pardons for more than 1,500 January 6 insurrectionists shortly after he was sworn in as the 47th president—effectively gutted the primary deterrent for future criminal behavior.
“These are the hostages, approximately 1,500 for a pardon, full pardon,” Trump said, the BBC reported. Trump added that it was the rioters whose lives had been destroyed.
“What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like it in the history of our country,” he continued.
A president’s pardon power is meant to be a tool for mercy and justice, but when leadership chooses loyalty over established rule-of-law, it’s no longer an act of grace, but a hazard to public safety.
