Missouri senator says Trump kept his promise by pardoning 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters
On Jan. 6, 2021, hours after a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Josh Hawley stood up and declared that the perpetrators should be held accountable.
“To say to millions of Americans tonight that violence is never warranted. Violence will not be tolerated, that those who engaged in it will be prosecuted,” the Missouri Republican said on the Senate floor while objecting to the presidential results from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
But at the Capitol on Tuesday, four years later, Hawley appeared unperturbed by Trump’s decision to issue a blanket pardon to around 1,500 people who were charged over their actions on Jan. 6, 2021, and commute the sentences for 14 people who were found guilty for their role in organizing the riot.
“He said he was going to do this during the campaign and he did exactly what he said he was going to do,” Hawley said.
Hawley was among the Republican lawmakers at the Capitol who said they didn’t think Trump should pardon or commute the sentences of people who committed violent crimes at the Capitol – a list that includes some people from the Kansas City area like John George Todd III, who was serving prison time for assaulting an officer.
But, after Trump made his decision, most of those Republicans quietly moved on.
Rep. Mark Alford, a Lake Winnebago Republican, said he believed the decision was up to the president and that the country needs to move on.
“It doesn’t matter really what I think,” Alford said. “If the president wants to free the people that, many were, I believe, wrongfully locked up, that’s his prerogative.”
The same couldn’t be said of Democrats at the Capitol. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat who hid out with staff in his office on the Capitol complex on Jan. 6, 2021, called the Trump’s pardons “shocking, but not in the least bit surprising.”
“This deeply disgraceful action by the President will only further inflame divisions within the nation while reopening the wounds of that tragic day, ensuring each Capitol Police Officer and the families of those no longer with us must face those traumatic events once again,” Cleaver said in a statement. “To those families, I am deeply sorry.”
Those from Missouri and Kansas pardoned
The Justice Department has charged 1,583 people over their role in the Capitol riot over the past four years, including 608 people who were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding the law enforcement officers who were protecting the Capitol that day.
The list includes 40 residents from Missouri and 10 residents from Kansas – people who were charged with crimes ranging from entering the Capitol when it was off-limits to the public, to those like William Chrestman, a former Olathe Proud Boy who helped lead the breach into the Capitol.
The trials, held in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, often featured video footage of the riot, including people pounding on the door of the House of Representatives, as Capitol Police had their guns drawn and members of Congress were pleading with them to leave the building.
But as the shock of the day began to dissipate, conservatives started to highlight the later parts of the riot, when Trump supporters appeared to be milling around the Capitol while police tried to clear the building, rather than the people who pushed against the police line.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that is closely aligned with Trump’s politics, praised the pardons on Monday. In a written statement, Kevin Roberts, the group’s president, said:
“President Trump’s decision to pardon nearly all January 6 defendants is a necessary corrective to the brazen weaponization of our justice system by the Left,” Roberts said. “The Democrats turned January 6 into a political cudgel, using it to distract from their disastrous policies and to smear their opponents.”
But not all of the groups who supported Trump’s campaign were happy with the decision. The Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Trump’s campaign, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a joint statement condemning the pardons of people who were found guilty of killing or assaulting police officers.
“When perpetrators of crimes, especially serious crimes, are not held fully accountable, it sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe, potentially emboldening others to commit similar acts of violence,” the statement said.
When asked what signal the pardons sent to the American people, Hawley kept the focus on politics.
“That he keeps his campaign promises,” he said.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 12:43 PM.
