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Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to pardon a vast swath of supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But his silence on the matter since winning the election has begun unsettling some fervent allies awaiting even the slightest signal from Trump about how he intends to turn his campaign rhetoric into reality.
Federal judges overseeing Jan. 6 cases have been left to guess at Trump’s plans. As a result, they have allowed nearly all cases to proceed, saying Trump’s clemency plans are merely “speculative.” Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have brought a handful of new Jan. 6 felony cases since Election Day, and they’ve argued repeatedly against efforts by defendants to delay their cases to await Trump’s inauguration.
The Justice Department has charged more than 1,500 people for their roles in the riot. Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would pardon many of them. But he left the specifics unclear, and never said whether he might leave in place some prosecutions, particularly against people who assaulted police.
Now that he’s president-elect, his failure to say more has begun nagging at some of his die-hard supporters, who have engaged in a public guessing game on X about Trump’s intentions.
“[H]onestly people have suffered for 4 years and many are still in flux and terrified. A word of reassurance from the top would go a long way for people,” wrote Brandon Straka, a prominent Trump ally who spent three months in home detention after pleading guilty to Jan. 6 misdemeanors. “The silence on the issue just exacerbates the victims’ anxiety. Hopefully some kind of messaging comes soon.”
Adding to the anxiety expressed by some Jan. 6 defendants is a statement from Trump’s transition team that hinted at a far more limited approach than the sweeping pardons that many in Trump’s base have demanded.
“President Trump will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis,” incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in the statement.
The meaning of “case-by-case” has morphed into a raging debate among Jan. 6 defendants and their allies.
“It is just a phrase. ‘Case by case,’ It isn’t a policy, or a strategy, or anything,” wrote Suzzanne Monk, a longtime advocate for Jan. 6 defendants. “It is a catch phrase the media is using to push the ‘only some will be pardoned’ narrative.”
In addition to the controversy over Trump’s clemency plans, Jan. 6 defendants have also been puzzling over whether his pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, will be a reliable ally in shutting down the four-year criminal investigation into the attack on the Capitol, which disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
John Lauro, one of Trump’s personal lawyers, said in a recent interview with an advocate for Jan. 6 defendants that he has been close to Bondi for 35 years but has not discussed her views on the riot.
“I know she will take this issue very seriously,” Lauro said in the interview with Julie Kelly. “Knowing her like I do, she will ensure every person in the criminal justice system has been dealt with fairly and justly.”
At times during the 2024 campaign, Trump suggested he would pardon virtually all Jan. 6 defendants, including those who assaulted police. At others, he has said he might not pardon those who “got out of control.”
A spokesperson for Trump declined to address the concerns cropping up among Jan. 6 defendants, instead pointing POLITICO to Trump’s comments during the campaign. The spokesperson, Steven Cheung, did not respond to requests for clarification about the scope of potential pardons by Trump.
Trump reportedly considered a blanket pardon for those who stormed the Capitol in the final two weeks of his first term. But he ultimately opted against it. A federal judge Trump appointed during his first term recently criticized the notion that Trump might reconsider such a broad pardon in the future.
On the other side of the ledger, two Trump allies in Congress — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — issued new calls this week for Trump to issue blanket pardons.
Kelly, who has spoken with Trump and congressional Republicans about concerns with Jan. 6 prosecutions, has similarly called for a blanket pardon to address what she calls a “blanket denial of the due process rights of Jan. 6 protesters.”
Kelly suggested that Trump’s public silence belies an enormous amount of advocacy behind the scenes, but she said there are also “political sensitivities” about the notion of pardoning those with assault charges — even though she believes many such pardons would be justified.
Compounding the concern among some supporters is Trump’s failed and short-lived bid to appoint former Florida lawmaker Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Gaetz has been among the most vocal figures in Washington calling for pardons for Jan. 6 defendants, and his selection was seen as a harbinger of Trump’s plan to take the most aggressive approach possible. But Gaetz withdrew his name from contention after many Republicans questioned whether the scandal-plagued lawmaker could get confirmed.
Bondi, Trump’s new pick to lead the Justice Department, has said nothing publicly about Jan. 6, the perpetrators of the Capitol attack or whether she agrees with Trump’s view of the riot.
Monk, who is leading an effort called the J6 Pardon Project, has told allies she is working to open lines of communication with Bondi.
In the meantime, Jan. 6 defendants and allies have continued hoping and speculating.
“We are literally holding our breath over here, hoping that my husband is under this pardon,” said one ally, Kari Hoffman, who said her husband, Luke Hoffman, is in jail on “bogus assault charges” and called Trump a “smart man.”
Former Cowboys for Trump head Couy Griffin, one of the first Jan. 6 defendants to go to trial, emphasized that Trump is responsible for the huge crowd assembling in Washington that day.
“The only reason that myself and a million others like me were in DC on January 6th is because @realDonaldTrump called us there. As the sitting President Donald Trump specifically told us that China had stolen the election,” Griffin wrote.
“Now we sit on the edge of our seats in suspense as we pray to be relieved and rectified,” Griffin added, calling the riot ”the greatest ENTRAPMENT in American history.”
