As President-elect Trump moves ever closer to becoming the 47th president of the United States, one of his campaign promises is starting to fester with the media and the political establishment. That promise is to pardon those caught up in the January 6 political show trials.
Resistance is coming from the media, law enforcement, and the courts.
A recent Politico article alleged that judges were becoming “alarmed” over the prospect of Trump issuing large numbers of pardons of January 6 defendants.
In extraordinary but little-watched court proceedings since Election Day, judges appointed by presidents of both parties have emphasized the need for accountability for the people who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to derail the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. These judges have sounded dire warnings about the fate of the country if the lessons of the 2020 election go unlearned, and they are bluntly bracing for a turbulent start to the second Trump presidency.
One Trump-appointed judge has already warned the incoming president against a “blanket pardon” for Jan. 6 offenders. A judge appointed by Barack Obama said Wednesday that any effort to absolve a former leader of the Oath Keepers, Jan. 6 ringleader Stewart Rhodes, would be “frightening.” Rhodes is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy, but Trump will have the power to wipe away that sentence on his first day back in office.
The judges’ clarion calls are becoming markedly more frequent and pointed as Trump’s inauguration nears. Since his 2024 victory, the federal trial courts in Washington have largely plowed ahead with Jan. 6 cases, even as defendants have tried to delay their cases by citing the possibility that Trump will soon pardon them. Judges have emphasized that his pardon power has no relationship to their obligation to mete out justice, and they have ignored, in Chutkan’s words, “whatever happens outside this courthouse door.”