WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on his first full day in office Tuesday defended his decision to grant clemency to people convicted of assaulting police officers during the 2021 attack on the Capitol and suggested there could be a place in U.S. politics for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extremist groups whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the U.S.
Trump used his opening hours in his second term to erase the records of more than 200 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting officers at the Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021, and free from prison those convicted of trying to overthrow the government, as he granted reprieve to all 1,500-plus people charged in the insurrection that was sparked after he refused to accept his loss in the 2020 presidential election. At least 140 officers were injured — many beaten, bloodied and crushed by the crowd — when Trump's supporters tried to overturn Trump's 2020 electoral defeat to former President Joe Biden.
Before the Capitol attack, the Proud Boys was a group best known for street fights with anti-fascist activists when Trump infamously told the group to “stand back and stand by” during his first debate in 2020 with then-presidential candidate Biden.
The group’s former top leader, Enrique Tarrio, and three of his lieutenants were convicted of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden after the 2020 election. Tarrio was serving a 22-year prison sentence, the longest of any Capitol riot case, before Trump pardoned him on Monday. Some members of the group marched in Washington on Monday as Trump was sworn into another term.
When pressed by a reporter about the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and whether there was a place for them in politics, Trump said, “Well, we have to see. They’ve been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.”
Trump spoke to reporters at the White House as he highlighted an investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure and declared, “We're back.”
“I think we’re going to do things that people will be shocked at,” he said.
When pressed about his decision to free people from prison who were shown on camera viciously attacking Capitol police officers, Trump declared, “I am a friend of police, more than any president who’s ever been in this office.”
The president on Tuesday said he thought the sentences handed down for actions that day were “ridiculous and excessive” and said, “These are people who actually love our country, so we thought a pardon would be appropriate.”
Two major law enforcement groups, The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police, issued a joint statement saying they were “deeply discouraged” by the pardons and commutations and believed those convicted should serve their full sentences.