On Monday, January 20, 2025, Donald Trump began his second term as President of the United States and he immediately began making waves on Capitol Hill and beyond. Hours after being sworn in to office, the President pardoned more than 1,500 people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, including 221 who were being held at federal facilities.
“It’s redemption, but also vindication,” Stewart Rhodes told reporters moments after being released from a jail in Washington, D.C.
Rhodes, former leader of the far-right group, Oath Keepers, had been serving an 18-month sentence after being convicted of plotting to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Rhodes didn’t enter the Capitol on January 6, 2021, thousands did. Within 36 hours of the Capitol Hill riots, five people died, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who was assaulted during the insurrection attempt and suffered multiple strokes the next day. Sicknick’s brother, Craig, called Trump’s decision to pardon those involved in the riots “despicable.”
“My brother died in vain. Everything he did to try to protect the country, to protect the Capitol – why did he bother?” Sicknick said.
“What Trump did is despicable, and it proves that the United States no longer has anything that resembles a justice system.”
Sicknick’s sentiments were not only echoed by those within the Democratic Party, but also Republicans.
“It is wrong to pardon individuals convicted of violent crime, especially when many of the victims of their violence were law enforcement officers,” Republican Senator Jerry Moran said.
“What happened to backing the Blue?” Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries added. “House Republicans are celebrating pardons issued to a bloodthirsty mob that violently assaulted police officers on January 6, 2021. What happened to backing the Blue? Far right extremists have become the party of lawlessness and disorder. Don’t ever lecture America again. About anything,”
