Trump's Trials - Jan. 6 defendants celebrate Trump's victory and expect to be pardoned

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, All Things Considered host Juana Summers speaks with NPR's Tom Dreisbach. For many people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Donald Trump's victory has led to celebration. Throughout Trump's campaign, he called the rioters "political prisoners" — and promised pardons on his first day in office. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Trials from NPR. I'm Scott Detro. We love Trump! This is a persecution. He actually just stormed out of the courtroom. Innocent to proven guilty in a court of law. Our regular episodes come out every Saturday, but there's some news in one of former President Trump's cases today. So we're going to share a story that just aired on NPR, and then we'll be back with

more in our usual episode on Saturday. Thanks for listening. Donald Trump has won the 2024 election. How did it happen and what are his plans for a second term? Find out by listening to the NPR Politics Podcast. We'll keep you informed every weekday with the latest news from the presidential transition. Listen to the NPR Politics Podcast. For many people charged in connection with the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol,

Donald Trump's victory has led to celebration. Throughout Trump's campaign, he called the rioters political prisoners and promised pardons on his first day in office as NPR's Tom Dreisbach reports January 6th defendants and their families are expecting Trump to follow through For the last few years on a corner outside the Washington DC jail Supporters of the January 6th defendants have held a vigil for the people they call Patriots last night. There was champagne have held a vigil for the people they call patriots. Last night, there was champagne. The FBI calls the January 6th attack an act of domestic terrorism. 140 police officers were injured by bats, stun guns, fists, and pepper spray.

On this corner, it was a righteous protest against what they still believe, despite the evidence, was a stolen election. We saw what happened in 2020. We said never again. And we got our country back. We did it. Praise the Lord. Nicole Reffett helps lead the vigil.

Her husband, Guy, is serving a seven-year prison sentence for bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds during the riot. He threatened his kids if they turned him into the FBI. And his son, actually testified for the prosecution, said that his kids if they turned him into the FBI, and his son actually testified for the prosecution, said that his dad told him, quote, traders get shot. Now, Nicole is hoping Trump follows through on his pardon promise. And Trump being elected isn't going to help put my family back together. But what it may do is maybe get Guy out so we can start that process.

Brandon Fellows was held inside the DC jail for years on January 6th charges. He was convicted of nonviolent offenses for breaching the Capitol, smoking a joint in a Senate office. Now he's on supervised release on the outside of the jail looking in. I don't know about everybody,

but I know I'm getting pardoned. Fellows told us he thinks the violence on January 6th was justified to stop Biden from taking office. —I want everybody to be pardoned because the election was stolen and they had a right to fully overthrow it. I wish they did. —During his campaign, Trump promised the pardons would come on his first day back in

office, but he hasn't given details. Here he is on CNN last year. —I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can say for every single one because a couple of them probably they got out of control. Prosecutors have brought more than 1,500 January 6 cases, ranging from simple trespassing type charges to violent assaults on police and seditious conspiracy against the United States. Trump is likely to end ongoing prosecutions, and he said he will consider pardons for people convicted of assaulting police. Lawyers for

January 6th defendants, like John Pierce, are asking the courts to pause cases until after Trump's inauguration and are preparing for the pardon process. We're certainly going to seek pardons for all of our defendants, regardless of what they were charged with or convicted of. So we're going to start putting together packets of information with respect to each defendant to try to push those through as quickly as we can. Heidi Birick is with the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. She said that Trump's promise to undo the January 6th prosecutions could energize violent

extremist groups that attack the Capitol. One of the things the prosecutions did is they decimated groups like the Oath Keepers by putting their leadership in prison, which I think contributed to the lack of major protests by these groups over the last year and a half or so. Well, now all hands are going to be off. She said that a pardon from the President of the United States would send a powerful signal. Groups like the Proud Boys will feel that violence is just fine. And we might see them back out on the streets and much more aggressive and targeting people

who they view as their opponents, whether those are folks on the left, people of color, and others. And for the people convicted of felonies, a pardon would give them back the right to own guns. Thomas Jocelyn is also concerned about more violence. He's a counterterrorism expert and served as a senior staff member on the January 6th Select Committee in Congress. And he told me he's worried that Trump's victory this week will whitewash not just January

6th, but all of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. I'm very worried that all the lies that he's told about our elections, all of the basically incitement he did, will now be sanitized by virtue of the fact that he won a second term. He told me the work of the committee was about demanding at least moral accountability for Trump's role in January 6th. He believes their investigation will stand the test of time, even if that's not reflected in how people voted. Tom Dreisbach, NPR News.

Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep an eye out for more episodes like this whenever big news happens. I'm Scott Tetra.