J6 Judges Push Back on Trump Pardons
One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president, as he promised, was to offer blanket pardons for more than 1,500 of the J6 defendants and clemency for more than a dozen.
The pardons did not sit well with a lot of people, especially because some of the pardons went to those who were convicted of sedition and assault on police officers.
Now, the judges who put those people away are speaking out.
Blanket Pardons
I have been very transparent in my thoughts on this particular subject.
While I have zero issues with most of the pardons, there were two different groups of defendants I thought Trump should never have pardoned or offered clemency.
First, anyone who was found guilty of sedition, which is a derivative of insurrection. The reason is that if Democrats get control back of Congress, they will go after Trump via the 14th Amendment for lending aid and comfort to an insurrectionist.
I firmly believe they will try to impeach Trump on this if they take back the House in 2026.
Second, anyone who was proven to have assaulted a police officer. You cannot run on a platform of law and order and supporting police when you allow people who beat cops to get out of jail.
In fact, one police union has already pushed back, so this could be a problem in mid-term elections for the entire GOP.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was chomping at the bit to get Trump into her courtroom, responded, “It cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.”
Trump defended his position, stating, “These people have served years of jail, and their lives have been ruined.
“They’ve served years in jail, and, if you look at the American public, the American public is tired of it.”
Trump is right to an extent, but the conservatives I have talked to are not happy about him letting the people go who beat on police. I won’t say it is enough to sway them against the GOP, but the moderates who voted for Trump are clearly upset about this.
While this may leave the news cycle in a week or so, Democrats will be rehashing this during the 2026 and 2028 elections to hurt the GOP. I can already see the TV ads of Trump talking about law and order, with a split screen of cops being beaten at the Capitol with Trump signing their pardons.
This, in my opinion, was a huge mistake by Trump that is going to significantly hurt the GOP in future elections.
