Background: Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, stand on stage at a campaign rally at North Carolina Aviation Museum, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Asheboro, N.C. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson). Inset: Jan. 6 rioters during the 2021 Capitol attack (Department of Justice).
Vice President-elect JD Vance just provided the clearest explanation yet of the Trump administration‘s plans to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, telling “Fox News Sunday” that while there’s “a little bit of a gray area there,” those who committed violence during the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack “obviously” shouldn’t be pardoned. Those who protested “peacefully,” however, can expect to have their records wiped clean.
“I think it’s very simple,” the former Ohio senator said. “If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6 and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
Vance’s comments provide a stark contrast to what President-elect Donald Trump has been saying over the past few months, with the future POTUS providing little to no details about who would get the pardons he’s been promising except declaring that protesters who assaulted Capitol police officers “had no choice” that day.
“I’m going to be acting very quickly,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month. “First day. I’m looking first day.”
Trump has vowed to probe each Jan. 6 criminal case individually in an effort to separate defendants who are “radical” and “crazy” from the ones who “had no choice.” But he has yet to provide a clear explanation about who that could be exactly and what type of charges.
“There’s a little bit of a gray area there,” Vance told Fox. “But we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law and there are a lot of people … in the wake of Jan. 6 who were persecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that.”
Trump stated during his “Meet the Press” interview that he believed Jan. 6 defendants had “suffered long and hard,” making them more than deserving of his pardons.
“They had no choice,” Trump said when asked about rioters who were caught assaulting cops. “I know the system. The system’s a very corrupt system. They say to a guy, ‘You’re going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.’ And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. For two years, they’ve been destroyed.”
More than 1,250 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty for their roles in the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.
According to The Washington Post, this has led to about 1,300 years in prison for more than 650 defendants; an additional 1,100 years of probation; 1,100 years of supervised release; 55 years of home detention; about four years of community service; and more than $1.2 million in both restitution and fines. Charges have ranged from seditious conspiracy to trespassing to using deadly or dangerous weapons for inflicting bodily harm on officers.
According to the Justice Department, of those arrested for their involvement in the Jan. 6 riot, at least 608 of the defendants were charged with assaulting or impeding federal police officers. At least 174 of those people were charged with an enhanced version of the crime for using deadly or dangerous weapons to inflict harm on officers.
“Even the ones that fought Capitol Police, caused damage to the Capitol, I think they’ve served their time,” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican and staunch Trump supporter, told the Associated Press earlier this month. “I think they should all be pardoned and released from prison.”
As word of Vance’s comments spread Sunday, supporters of the Jan. 6 defendants began calling him out on X — formerly Twitter — leading to a public response from the vice president-elect.
“First of all, I donated to the J6 political prisoner fund and got ROASTED for it during my senate race,” Vance wrote in response to an X post criticizing him.
“I’ve been defending these guys for years,” he said. “Second, there were federal informants in the crowd. Do they get a pardon? I don’t think so.”
First of all, I donated to the to the J6 political prisoner fund and got ROASTED for it during my senate race. I’ve been defending these guys for years.
Second, there were federal informants in the crowd. Do they get a pardon? I don’t think so. The president saying he’ll look at…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) January 12, 2025
Vance stated that while it may look like he’s walking back previous statements from Trump on the Jan. 6 pardons, it’s ultimately not the case.
“The president saying he’ll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walkback,” Vance insisted. “I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial.”
