On Tuesday, President Donald Trump stated that the roughly 1500 pardons and commutations for J6 defendants issued Monday night are not the final resolution of cases. The President indicated that some commutations may be converted into full pardons. What is now clear is that the executive action includes violent offenders. That is wrong regardless of any excesses in the handling of these cases.
Many of us have previously stated that any executive relief should not extend to violent offenders, particularly those who attacked police officers. Among those was Vice President J.D. Vance who said “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” However, that advice appears to have been discarded in the issuance of these pardons and commutations, including members of extreme groups like the Proud Boys.
In my book, The Indispensable Right, I explored the J6 cases and what some of us view as the excesses of the Justice Department in the treatment of many defendants. That included sentences and conditions that contravened free speech as well as terms that seemed driven by the promise to carry out a campaign of “shock and awe.” (While the book calls for the elimination of sedition-based crimes (which include seditious conspiracy charges used in a small number of J6 cases), that is a matter for Congress.
Nevertheless, the book stressed that violent offenders and groups involved in the attacks warranted severe punishment. When Trump campaigned on granting pardons, many of us believed that such action should not extend to such figures. January 6th was a desecration of our constitutional process. Those who attacked officers and engaged in violence were justifiably hit with heavy penalties.
The prosecutors originally charged roughly a third of the cases with violence against officers. Even when you remove the violent cases, the majority of cases still included hundreds of prosecutions without violent elements. If there were to be pardons and commutations, those cases should have been the focus.
Instead, this action extended to violent cases. This included Isreal James Easterday, who received 30 months for pepper spraying an officer. It also included Daniel Joseph “DJ” Rodriguez, who was sentenced to 151 months for not only calling for violence before the riot but then attacking an officer.
It also included Thomas Andrew Casselman, who was sentenced to 40 months for pepper spraying an officer and Curtis Davis who was sentenced to 24 months for punching officers.
There are clearly others.
President Trump clearly ran on this pledge, though it was not clear what the scope of the relief would be. There were many citizens who wanted to see closure. However, polls also showed that voters routinely drew a line at those who engaged in violence.
Supporters point to the fact that both Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton pardoned figures who attacked the Capitol. However, that is no justification for this relief. Even if you believe that relief is warranted, it should not extend to those who attacked officers. Moreover, to convert commutations to full pardons for these cases would only compound the wrong. These officers fought to defend the Capitol and the constitutional process. Those who attacked them warranted convictions and punishment.
Isn’t Trump giving aid & comfort to our enemies by dropping protection of John Bolton?
How? Aid and comfort is a term of art re treason. Are you really suggesting that to not provide protection in perpetuity for any given former govt officeholder is treasonous?
With the Democrats pardoning the whole J6 committee (why would they need pardons??), my guess is Trump simply wanted to close the book on the whole J6 episode.
Up until Biden unleashed his last round of pardons including actual murderers and at least one who actually killed federal law enforcement officers I would have been right there with you. Think if this as another Harry Reid moment… Yoi started the fight, we finished it.
Looks like Turley is NOT aware that the crowd was FIRED upon BEFORE anyone breached. I am former LE and I am disgusted about what the GOVERNMENT did on Jan6. To start with, the protection of the capitol is the responsibility of the Speaker of the House and where is the condemnation of the Speaker who refused National Guard help from DJT and did NOTHING to make sure that the capitol was safe. The DOJ pencil whipped every person they arrested…the conditions that the prisoners were forced to endure are worse than being in a prison in some third world country…spare me your outrage…
STOP REPEATING THE LIE THAT NANCY PELOSI WAS IN CHARGE OF SECURITY AT THE CAPITOL AND REFUSED NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS–that did not happen. From “USA Today:
““Trump Says Pelosi Turned Down His Request For 10,000 National Guard Troops For Jan. 6 Rally…!!!” reads the caption of a Dec. 13 Facebook video that accumulated more than 4,000 views within a couple days.
The video included in the post shows Trump speaking to a crowd on Dec. 11 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he claimed he recommended 10,000 National Guard troops be deployed because he knew the crowd size was going to be “enormous.”
“I recommended 10 but I said do whatever they want, they’re running the Capitol, they know what they’re doing,” Trump says in the video. “And the Capitol police knew about it, she (Pelosi) knew about it, and they turned it down because they said it didn’t look good.”
But Trump’s claim was debunked by fact-checkers in March, after he first made the statement during a Fox News appearance, and it’s still not true. There is no evidence Trump made any formal request about deploying 10,000 National Guard troops before the rally.”
January 6th was solely due to Donad J. Trump’s endless and ongoing lie about winning in 2020–he LOST.
Pelosi admitted it herself, plus we have many reports that NG were ready and standing by, as well as were requested by Trump and others. If no NG were requested, then why were they waiting on the tarmac at the nearby army base (name is escaping me atm), and were ready when called on later that afternoon? if there were none requested, how did they get there that same day?
Gigenious continues to amaze. Starting to think she/it’s a bot, with how consistently wrong she/it is
This is a lie. There is sworn testimony by Administration staff that President Trump did offer NG troops but that they had to be requested by Speaker or Mayor. Get your head out of the ground.
Actually, they were defending themselves against officers who attacked them unprovoked. The culmination of the lawless behavior by the officers and government agents provoking the crowd was the murder of a protestor. They were all overcharged and it was orchestrated by democrats who refused to properly secure the capital and instigated the situation. The whole event, and all acts tied to it, rest entirely on democrats.
Who will decide who the violent offenders are, Liz Cheney? Adam Schiff? Was the guy who hit the officer with a fire extinguisher violent even though he didn’t actually hit anyone just because he was threatening? Pardon them all.
Judges and juries decided. Get a life, time to stop drinking theh kool aid and accept what is happening.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t there a substantial amount of evidence that was destroyed? And how could these people have had a fair trial? We have thousands of felons that are walking the streets due to tainted evidence. Might I suggest that they take the national average of sentences for assaults on police officers, and use that as a guideline? If so, I would imagine that these folks have already served their time, and then some. This J6 event was avoidable, unprecedented and a true government coverup. These people were not give a fair trial.
How could they ever get a fair trial in DC?
Mr. Turley, will you explain how the members of a committee of congress are selected. My understand is that each party selects the members of their party to serve on a committee. If I’m wrong, please explain. Thank you.
Normally each party selects its members, but the J6 committee was different. Pelosi selected all members.
Pelosi selected all members because the Republicans refused to do anything. Oh yea, they were going to put congressman on the committee that were part of the insurrection. So Pelosi said pick people that were not in communicatino with the President. McCarthy refused.
Is this Anonymous Gigi repeating her lie that Pelosi didn’t refuse anything, whether the National Guard aid Trump authorized for her the day before or refused to allow the members chosen by the GOP to be empaneled?
Oh wait! Here’s the excuse! Wait for it!
Commissar Pelosi said that the new rules were that she could declare what the definition of an insurrection is, and what participation in an insurrection meant – declaring the findings of her Soviet style show trial before it ever met. This is the “insurrection” that these police state fascists continue to cling to.
Despite the fact no person, Congressman or not, was ever charged with an insurrection.
Despite the fact the FBI (hardly representative of unbiased law enforcement) said there was no insurrection.
And this is the very same Commissar Pelosi who to this day continues to repeat their favorite J6 lie “Police officers were murdered in the Senate that day”.
This tactic of lying in an attempt to retcon history by Speaking Our Democrat Police State Fascist Truths was incredibly effective in the election that just returned President Trump to the White House.
Given your faith in how credible this lie is with the American public, I do hope you continue to use this as your election campaign strategy for the midterms and the next presidential election.
Oh…. and run either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris as your candidate in the 2028 presidential election. Or run yourself. Anonymously of course.
Old Airborne Dog
Another kool-aid, drinking liar.
Sadly the article may have a point BUT the Biden DOJ Star Chamber games along with the Leftist DC Judge Corp created their own Fire Storm with the American Public doubting ANYTHING they did. As many death penalty opponents say – ‘I would rather release guilty people than put an innocent person to death’ – seems to be operative in the J6 cases like it or not! Maybe this teaches the DOJ and complicit judges that charge and sentencing enhancements don’t always serve the public interest! Hopefully LESSON LEARNED!!
Remember Ashli Babbitt
-January 6, 2021
In other news, 3 Catholic Nuns and a Catholic Priest had a snowball fight where the Nuns prevailed. The video went “viral”. A college friend who worked for NASA as a physicist, and later became a Catholic priest and is now a pastor of a parish in New Orleans, sent me the following.
January 6th was a desecration of our constitutional process.
Professor Turley, your deep Democrat soul will never allow you to label all your fellow Democrat lawyers serving in public office who committed felonies by perjuring themselves to FISA courts in order to deprive Trump and other Americans of their civil rights by color of law to rig an election were also a desecration of our constitutional process. You ignore the fact they should have long ago been in the cells now occupied by the J6 rioters – not having a drink with you at a Washington Bar Association meeting.
These aren’t yahoo emotional trespassers and rioters. These are well educated lawyers who made a cold calculus to use a “dossier” they knew was false, an illegal document written by an illegally employed Russian spy in order to repeatedly perjure themselves to and deceive a judge to violate the rights of thousands of Americans. Their express purpose was to rig the election for the Democrat candidate.
That is what a desecration looks like – Democrat lawyers in Washington DC violating federal law and their bar association’s code of ethics to discredit the courts and use our constitutional process as a corrupt criminal weapon.
You will never say that your friend and fellow Democrat lawyer Attorney General Merrick Garland also desecrated our constitutional process with the four years he used his office to wage lawfare on Trump, concerned parents, traditional Catholics – while at the same time permitting Democrat rioters to attempt to intimidate SCOTUS justices in their homes while he prevented law enforcement from doing their jobs by arresting and charging those violent felons.
Sadly Professor Turley, every time you do this you serve the purpose of being an avatar warning of how Democrat lawyers act on the basis of Democrat Double Standards Differences when they gain positions of great power in politics.
Old Airborne Dog
Best reply on this thread.
The government infiltrators must be prosecuted first. Those in government who orchestrated the event must be punished. Cops seem to be welcoming and at the same time brutal. Only one person was killed unnecessarily and it wasn’t an officer of the law.
I agree but there were Two women killed that day. One shot like a dog, the other crushed by s crowd and jack whipped by the police as she lay unconscious after being bottled in a tunnel, and pepper sprayed.
Free Derek Chauvin
It is much more important to find out if there’s truth to the government having fomented this event through agent provacateur. This is a far more eggregious crime, and was discovered to have occurred in the Governor of Michigan kidnapping conspiracy; the FBI did try to create a false flag crime, according to what’s in the press that has not been censored. Violence is actually advocated in the Declaration of Independance when tyrrany has prevailed. But the declaration of independance, shockingly, demonized falsely the wrong party. It was the “democracy” element in British Government that were the most culpable; whereas George III was actually the most anti-Tyranical king in English history. Just so, if the government was involved through fomenting the violence-that is by far the more important issue to uncover.
Though Professor Turley looks better condemning violence; when you have the possibility that the insitutions are so perfidious that they themselves provoked the violence as so many of the documentaries, video evidence and testimonies are beginning to show-then the condemnation here by Professor Turley, is a bit cowardly.
Thank you President Trump! All truths shall be revealed or something like that?! I am skre what is coming is going to eye opening.
It has been ADMITTED that J6 sentences were wildly inflated solely based on the location of the alleged crimes.
That is a violation of Equal Protection under the Constitution. Similar crimes must have similar sentences.
I forget the name, but one rioter got 240 months in prison for assaulting two officers. There are murderers who serve less time.
I can’t agree with a professor even if in the abstract it does not seem like a great idea to pardon those who attack officers.. However, this is a case unique history. This took what I call the one riot ever and a half in America and turned it into a political witch hunt that swept across the nation, terrorize people who even showed up at the march, attempted to keep our president off the ballot by unconstitutional means, prosecuted many on unconstitutional grounds that have since been dismissed and others for simply sticking their head in or walking into the capital. It was one more avenue the Biden administration used to seek one party power. Can you imagine what would have happened to our country if he had succeeded?
No one brought a gun into the Capitol. No one killed that officer. The only murder was done to a Trump supporter and that officer, who immediately lied afterwards and claimed they were taking fire and were about to return it, was not only not investigated or prosecuted, but was promoted. That is furthered by the lie told over and over that officers were killed at the Capitol that day.
One thing I severely disagree with the professor on – and I may avid reader of his for many years – is his seeming obtuseness to the fact that these people are not just bad policy makers, but those who are treasonous and actually fascists who want to stop free speech and stop free elections. Had that to the fact of the many pardons of or acts of clemency for murderers bye Biden, which he did not mention, including two cop killers. Imagine, Biden pardoned two cop killers and this article complains that some who punched officers or sprayed them with mace got pardoned after serving time. Leave aside the absurd political penalties – 22 years for someone who didn’t even show up at the Capitol, 19 years for another. Many imprisonments for years for people who in New York City would have gotten a complete pass based on their skin color.
Not only am I an avid whatabouter – It shows hypocrisy and intent to do bad things – But without any killing or maiming of an officer done at the Capitol – and murder being done towards the protesters – it is almost the only thing that matters now.
Trump did the right thing even if it might seem excessive. And he did it after telling everyone he was going to do it. Unlike Biden whose pardons were done in the usual secretive fashion, including his own family and those who committed treason against America or sought to control it.
Well said Anonymous. Agree with all of this. Why did the cop who killed Ashli Babbit without cause get promoted instead of reprimanded? Why isn’t Lila Morris being held to public scrutiny for beating a defenseless Roseanne Boyland? The protest was peaceful until the protesters were attacked with all sorts of tear gas, rubber bullets (which went through the cheek of one protester)flash bangs, deterrent grenades, pushing one man off a 2 story precipice, the police crimes seem endless and none of them were punished. I am a believer in the need for police and that most of the, are good people, but this was horrible treatment that seemed designed to cause reactions from those believing the electoral votes needed re-examined. All they wanted was proof that the election wasn’t fraudulent when everything pointed to it being so. Most of the video that have been released have shown that the videos used to convict these people were taken out of context, a ploy the media and Trump’s political opponents have made a career doing. Time served for anyone thought to have done anything to the police was more than what was necessary. And more time should be spent with all the pardons the Biden administration gave to so many guilty people who will go unpunished for the crimes. Where is the outcry from the media for this? How is it even possible to pardon someone who has not been charged with anything. Talk about abuse of power absolutely!
I don’t like the appearance of tit-for-tat on this issue, but… let’s not forget Joe pardoned 37 murderers.
Commutation of their death sentence , they just get to live in prison for life. I think one got house arrest as he was 85 years old.
Joe pardoned 37 murderers
FALSE.
Why do you write easily provable falsehoods? They were not pardoned.
They yad their death sentance reduced to life in prison.
HUUUUUUUGE difference
Quite spreading lies to try to defend your orange god.
When Law Enforcement uses lethal force against unarmed citizens, when they use rubber bullets on human targets, when they use chemical gases, when they invade your domicile, when they use unauthorized surveillance …
Why do ‘They’ get a Blanket Pardon? A Free Pass on the Law. Because they went through a Junior College C.J. program and training program? because they are mentally fit to behold the standards of the Law – Oh but when something happens to them, they’re no different than Us.
Double Standards – and the People are beginning to realize that.The J6 participants had that realization. Trump got elected upon that ‘realization’, That the Law, the Government, the System isn’t playing fairly, and We just had an Election to send that message to those in the Authoritarian positions that have caused this to become what it is. Trump is a Political Messiah sent by the People to set the system back in proper order. Those whom don’t atone will suffer the consequences, regardless of what side of the Law they are upon.
Unfortunately, the people on the left are not realizing their hypocrisy.
* What is objectionable in this article is the disparate treatment of the rioters and other riots. These are characterized as examples of what can happen to you if you riot for the right or for Trump etc. Due process says nothing about making a few lawbreakers examples by excessive punishment.
4 years is too great and it cut the sentences by 3 months? So it is…
I wasn’t thrilled about it either, but seriously, there was no due process there – zero. Meanwhile literally no one went to jail for the summer of love, CHAZ, the incidents at courthouses, the harassment of members of Congress and the Judiciary, Hunter Biden – the list goes on and on.
I do not advocate violence against law enforcement, but J6 absolutely pales in comparison to any of the others, and again: the fact that Nancy denied support that was offered, and stated herself it was a mistake – forget it. This is small potatoes, and if it’s on anyone, it’s her.
Well, Professor, you advocated for him–many of us in the know knew this day was coming–you helped with your zealous advocacy to make this possible.
@Anonymous
🙄🙄🙄