Trump will pardon January 6 rioters on day one

On his first day back at the White House next month, Donald Trump plans to issue pardons for all January 6 defendants.

The president-elect said it’s a high priority for him to get those who rioted at the Capitol in 2021 out of where they are held in prisons and jails because they have been there for years while he ran for a second term.

‘I’m going to be acting very quickly,’ Trump told NBC News in his first post-victory interview aired on Sunday.

He insisted: ‘Yea, I’m looking first day.’

‘You’re going to issue these pardons?’ Meet the Press host Kristen Welker clarified.

‘These people have been there, how long is it? Three, four years,’ Trump lamented.

‘They’ve been in there for years. And they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open,’ he added. 

The mass pardons could see more than 500 people released from prisons and another nearly 1,000 cases dismissed. 

President-elect Donald Trump vowed to pardon January 6 rioters on his first day back in office

President-elect Donald Trump (left) sat down with NBC News host Kristen Welker (right) for his first post-election interview that aired on Meet the Press on Sunday, December 8, 2024

Trump suggested right after President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter last weekend that he would also look to commute sentences and issue pardons for the defendants connected to and those convicted over the January 6 Capitol riot.

He now confirmed in his interview with NBC News that he will take action immediately after taking his oath of office in January. 

As of August, 944 defendants had their cases adjudicated and received sentences for their activity on January 6, 2021, according to the Justice Department.

And of those almost 1,000 people, 562 were sentenced to incarceration of varying periods.

More than 1,488 defendants were charged in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia in both District and Superior Court.