On January 20, upon reassuming his position as president, Donald Trump issued a series of pardons, totaling roughly 1,500. These individuals have been arrested for seditious conspiracies, regarding the January 6 Capitol Attack.
Why can this happen?
Trump’s position as president gives him the power of executive clemency, meaning that he has the ability to exonerate people convicted of federal crimes, the punishment relating to the crime, and remove the threat of any future prosecution of the crime.
This power is given to the president in Article ll, Section ll of the U.S. Constitution and has been utilized by prior presidents.
Who is affected by this?
Thousands of people stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, after President Trump claimed the presidential election had been “rigged.” Hundreds of people were arrested and convicted that day for a plethora of charges such as aggravated assault against a federal officer with a deadly weapon or unlawful parading about the Capitol building.
These pardons may be affecting hundreds of these individuals.
However, currently there are 14 identified names of those pardoned, being “Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Thomas Caldwell, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerschel, Joseph Hackett, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola, and Jeremy Bertino,” The White House official website said.
How do people feel about it?
With so many divided political views in America, there is a wide variety of opinions on this event. “I don’t think he should have done the blanket pardon, because there are some criminals who were pardoned who have done things like aggravated assault,” said Senior Asia Picardi. She went on to say that she doesn’t necessarily feel safe knowing that these rioters are released from custody. There is no telling if the January 6 rioters will execute another aggressive protest again. What if the next one becomes more out of control. What if the next one takes even more lives. Many are terrified by these ideas.
In contrast, other students tend to agree with President Trump’s decision. “Looking back on Biden, he pardoned people for other things, so I think in retrospect they were doing the same things. You know, pardoning people that may have been not right or good, so in retrospect, it’s kind of even.”, said Senior Mackenzie Maniscalco. During the end of Biden’s presidency he issued an unconditional pardon on his son, Robert Hunter Biben. This excused him from any offenses that he may or may not have committed or taken part in, including all offenses that have been charged or prosecuted. If looked at from this angle, Trump’s pardons can be seen as him simply defending his people, just as Biden had.
Others however, find themselves at a halfway point between these two views. “I don’t know if it was right or wrong,” explains Sophomore Camden Wells. There are two sides of each coin. For example, not everyone present at the January 6 event were rioters, some were just protestors who were there before things turned south. Not everyone who was there committed crimes, but they were still arrested. However, many did, and now many of those people are being let out, whether they committed a crime, or are innocent.
What will this mean for the future?
At the end of the day, we can’t be sure what this will mean for the future of Trump’s presidency, or the nation.
Some speculate because of the pardoning, he may be taking more aggressive action this term. Others say that the President may be more focused on taking actions to protect the interest of his supporters. However, we can’t be certain of any of this due to how early it is in his term.
Along with this, due to how recent the announcement of the pardoning is, we have still yet to see the potential consequences of the pardons.
However only time will tell, so it is important to keep yourself aware and informed during these times of constant change and political developments.
