(CNN) — President Donald Trump is planning to pardon people convicted of nonviolent offenses related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack and to commute the sentences of others convicted of more serious offenses, according to multiple sources familiar with the plan.
The Justice Department also is expected to move in court to dismiss cases that have not yet gone to trial, according to a Trump transition official.
Trump has not yet signed an executive order but is expected to do so Monday.
More than 730 people have been convicted of misdemeanor offenses in connection with January 6, according to the latest Justice Department estimates. Further, there are about 300 prosecutions still pending in court as of Monday, including many accused of violent felony crimes, such as assaulting police.
More than 140 police officers were injured during the seven-hour siege, which also led directly and indirectly to the deaths of four Trump supporters in the mob and five police officers.
Trump has long pledged to pardon at least some of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, disrupting the peaceful transfer of power.
After the attack, the Justice Department and FBI launched a nationwide manhunt to identify and arrest rioters, which turned into the biggest criminal probe in US history. Prosecutors charged more than 1,580 people and secured roughly 1,270 convictions.
About 55% of January 6 prosecutions are misdemeanor cases, with charges like disorderly conduct or trespassing, according to Justice Department data. For those convicted, the vast majority were sentenced to probation or a few months in prison and were already released.
Some defendants are elderly people who got caught up in the frenzy. Others went inside the Capitol for a handful of minutes but never attacked anyone or vandalized anything. Most have no criminal record. A large chunk of the people in the mob said they never intended to infiltrate the Capitol, let alone disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results. Some believe they were waved into the building by police.
Yet, Trump has also called January 6 “a day of love and peace” and claimed his supporters posed “zero threat.” These false claims are belied by hundreds of video clips of Trump supporters beating police with flagpoles, batons, wooden clubs and baseball bats, deploying stun guns and chemical sprays, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police officers.
Pardons vs. commutations
Pardons don’t erase a defendant’s criminal record and don’t overturn a conviction. Any January 6 rioters who pleaded guilty or were found guilty at trial are still convicted criminals.
But a pardon forgives the offense and restores the recipient’s civil rights, like gun ownership or voting rights. For convicted rioters on probation, a pardon will end their probation early.
Presidents also have the power to commute sentences of people convicted of federal crimes. For instance, a president can reduce or eliminate someone’s prison sentence, which could pave the way for incarcerated January 6 rioters to be freed from custody.
Unlike a pardon, a commutation does not forgive the crime and does not restore the recipient’s civil rights. Similar to pardons, a commutation does not erase a conviction.
US attorney Matthew Graves, a Biden appointee who oversaw the prosecution of the rioters, last week condemned any possible pardons but said nothing will erase the events of 2021.
“A pardon does not wipe away what occurred,” Graves told CNN.
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