Trump is vowing to pardon Jan. 6 rioters. Allies and critics alike say he needs a refresher.
President-elect Donald Trump’s recent “Meet the Press” interview has triggered concerns among allies and critics about his level of awareness of the details of the sprawling investigation into the Capitol attack that has produced hundreds of convictions in the nearly four years since Jan. 6.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent “Meet the Press” interview has triggered concerns among allies and critics about his level of awareness of the details of the sprawling investigation into the Capitol attack that has produced hundreds of convictions in the nearly four years since Jan. 6.
Trump is weeks away from being sworn in, a day he has said that he’ll “most likely” begin immediately pardoning Jan. 6 defendants. “I’ll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes,” Trump told Time magazine. “We’re going to look at each individual case, and we’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office. And a vast majority of them should not be in jail.”
Interviews with Trump allies, supporters of Jan. 6 defendants, online sleuths who have aided the FBI investigation, and law enforcement officials reveal an unusual level of agreement: Trump’s recent comments made clear to them that Trump hasn’t kept up to speed on the Jan. 6 docket. More than 1,500 defendants have been charged and 1,100 convicted in the sprawling Capitol breach probe, with more than 600 being sentenced to prison. Defendants were arrested, convicted and sentenced all throughout 2024, but the cases received diminishing coverage.
Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker that he’ll be “acting very quickly” on Jan. 6 pardons, saying there might be “exceptions” if Jan. 6 defendants were “radical” or “crazy.” He also appeared to mistakenly believe that most or all Jan. 6 defendants were being held in the jail in Washington, when in fact only a handful of defendants are still being held pretrial and those who have been convicted are now housed in federal prisons across the country. One law enforcement official said the interview made “absolutely” clear that Trump wasn’t read in on the details of Jan. 6 cases.
A Trump ally who is familiar with the discussions within the Trump team said that the “Meet the Press” interview showed the president-elect’s blind spots on the sprawling probe.
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