Trump-appointed Judge Says He Would Not Support Blanket J6 Pardons
All throughout this campaign, Donald Trump vowed to pardon many of the J6 defendants.
Trump said he would look at all the cases, and pardon those he felt were wrongly prosecuted.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols just threw shade at Trump, believing this this the wrong way to go about this.
The J6 Defendants
I was among the first to say that anyone who truly broke the law on J6 should be prosecuted, and I quickly followed that up by saying that I thought the DOJ was overzealous in charging protesters.
There were definitely people who attacked police officers and caused property damage, and they need to be held accountable.
Not calling for that would make me a hypocrite after my outrage over the damage and lack of prosecutions during the Georgy Floyd riots.
Having said that, when you sentence a 70-year-old woman to jail for being inside the Capitol that day, where she was reportedly praying, I think you have gone a little too far.
Anyone who saw all the videos knows that many of the people charged were doing nothing more than walking around, some led by Capitol Police officers, even helping the officers to clear some of the rooms.
I would have no problem with Trump pardoning those, while I believe the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are likely to be left off the pardon list, as well as those who were confirmed to have attacked police officers or caused damage.
Even if that is the case, Trump-appointed Judge Nichols is against “blanket pardons” or “anything close.”
This is something that Trump needs to be very careful about because of the 14th Amendment.
If Trump pardons anyone who has been charged with insurrection or a derivative of such, he could find himself being impeached for lending aid and comfort to an insurrectionist.
I would advise the president-elect to tread very carefully because the media and Democrats are already frothing at the mouth to take him out.
