Trump hints at pardons for those charged over US Capitol riot if reelected

WASHINGTON — Former US President Donald Trump has suggested he would pardon some of those charged for their part in the assault on the US Capitol last year if he were reelected in the 2024 presidential vote.

“If I run and if I win we will treat those people from January 6th fairly. We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly,” Trump said at a rally on Saturday night in Conroe, Texas.

Hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the US legislature in Washington on January 6 last year in an effort to block certification of President Joe Biden’s November 2020 election victory.

More than 700 people have been arrested as part of the investigation into the riot that left five people dead and the country reeling. That list grows by the day as the sprawling investigation churns on.

Most of the accused are not charged with violence or vandalism but merely with having illegally entered the building and generally face misdemeanour charges.

However, some longer sentences have been handed down and more of the approximately 225 individuals accused of acts of violence could face serious repercussions in court.

Trump has repeatedly spoken out against the prosecution of those who took part in the riot, but had yet to put pardons on the table before his Saturday rally.

The former president has been accused of stoking the Capitol violence with a fiery speech claiming election fraud, assertions that have never been substantiated by the states in question, the Justice Department or US courts.

A House of Representatives select committee is also in the midst of investigating how the attack took place and whether Trump and members of his circle had a part in encouraging it.

Trump hit out at the committee on Saturday, calling its work a “disgrace”.