Trump Pardons the Jan. 6 Cop Beaters – WSJ
The President s clemency proclamation commutes prison sentences to time served for 14 named people, including prominent leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who were organized and ready for violence. Then Mr. Trump tries to wipe Jan. 6 clean, with a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals. The conceit is that there are hundreds of polite Trump supporters who ended up in the wrong place that day and have since rotted in jail.
Out of roughly 1,600 cases filed by the feds, more than a third included accusations of assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement. The U.S. Attorney s office said it declined hundreds of prosecutions against people whose only offense was entering restricted grounds near the Capitol. Of the 1,100 sentences handed down by this year, more than a third didn t involve prison time. The rioters who did get jail often were charged with brutal violence, including:
” Daniel Joseph DJ Rodriguez, sentenced to 151 months, who can be seen on video, federal prosecutors said, deploying an electroshock weapon against a policeman who was dragged out of the defensive line, by plunging it into the officer s neck. The night before, he promised in a MAGA chat group: There will be blood.
” William Lewis, given 37 months, sprayed streams of Wasp and Hornet Killer spray at multiple police officers on four distinct occasions, forcing several to flee the line and seek treatment for their eyes.
” Isreal James Easterday, 30 months, blasted a cop in the face with pepper spray at point-blank range, after which the officer collapsed and temporarily lost consciousness, which enabled another rioter to steal his baton.
” Thomas Andrew Casselman, 40 months, hit multiple officers near their faces with pepper spray. His later internet searches included, The statute of limitations for assault on a police officer.
” Curtis Davis, 24 months, punched two police officers in the head. That night he filmed a video of his fist, in which he bragged: Them knuckles right there, from one of those m faces at the Capitol.
” Ronald Colton McAbee, 70 months, hit a cop while wearing reinforced brass knuckle gloves, and he held one down on the ground as other rioters assailed the officer for over 20 seconds, causing a concussion.
” Michael Joseph Foy, 40 months, brought a hockey stick with a TRUMP 2020 flag attached, which he swung over his head and downward at police officers as if he were chopping wood.
There are more like this, which everyone understood on Jan. 6 and shortly afterward. There is nothing patriotic about what is occurring on Capitol Hill, one GOP official tweeted. This is 3rd world style anti-American anarchy. That was Marco Rubio, now Mr. Trump s Secretary of State. He was right. What happened that day is a stain on Mr. Trump s legacy. By setting free the cop beaters, the President adds another.
via www.wsj.com
It’s mistake to blanket pardon all of the J6 defendants. JD was right the first time he addressed this issue. Pardons for everyone except those convicted of violence. But you can’t leave people to rot in jail for years because you’re too busy to try them, and then there are all the people who did not do anything more than trespass. Rough justice I guess. And I think you do need to compare J6 defendants with defendants in DC and other jurisdictions which treat assaults as basically non-crimes if committed by non-Trumpers.