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President Donald Trump announced that, upon entering office, he will “very quickly” pardon many of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
During an exclusive interview with NBC News’ “Meet The Press” on Sunday, the president-elect told host Kristen Welker that this decree would be made during his first day in office because “These people are living in Hell.”
The president-elect further suggested that there would be “some exceptions” for who was granted pardons, questioning why individuals like Ray Epps, who President Trump cited as one person who encouraged bystanders to enter the Capitol Building, seemingly disappeared from the Justice Department’s radar, while law enforcement instead targeted individuals who “did very little.”
“[The Justice Department] arrested an old woman,” he told Welker. “I don’t think she did anything. They don’t even know what she did. These people have suffered. Their lives have been destroyed.”
President Trump then criticized the Justice Department’s double-standard, accusing the agency of ignoring the Portland rioters who “burned down half the city,” along with those who took over parts of Seattle, and Minneapolis’ destruction by the likes of radicals during the summer of 2020, while throwing January 6 protestors in prison.
“I saw people that didn’t even go into the building, and they were convicted. And you had the police saying, ‘Come on in! Come on in! Come on in!'” he said. “You know, you have a lot of cameras—they don’t want to release the tapes.”
The president-elect further argued that the system was “very corrupt,” but he would be looking “very quickly” during his first day at pardoning those affected.
“These people have been there—how long has it been? Three or four years, you know,” he explained. “By the way, they’ve been in there for years. And they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
According to a report from The Hill, over 1,500 individuals have ben charged for involvement in the events of Jan 6, while more than 1,200 have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
More than 200 people are currently in custody, the report found.
