They assaulted cops and tried to overturn an election. What to know about Trump’s mass pardons for January 6 rioters

With the stroke of a pen on Monday, President Donald Trump completely upended the Justice Department’s four-year effort to arrest, prosecute and punish the people who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

With the stroke of a pen on Monday, President Donald Trump completely upended the Justice Department’s four-year effort to arrest, prosecute and punish the people who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. It was the largest criminal probe in American history, those who heeded Trump’s call in 2021 to come to Washington and try to stop Congress from certifying his 2020 election defeat. More than 140 police officers were injured during the seven-hour siege, which also led directly or indirectly to the deaths of four Trump supporters in the mob and five police officers. The presidential proclamation Trump signed in the Oval Office said this action of mass clemency “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.” Trump’s pardons make no effort to distinguish between people who engaged in violence that day compared with those who were charged or convicted of nonviolent offenses. For instance, the pardons include the men who viciously beat DC police officer Michael Fanone and pepper-sprayed US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day. “Six individuals who assaulted me as I did my job on January 6 … will now walk free,” Fanone told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday. “Six individuals who threatened my life and threatened my family members … My family, my children and myself are less safe today because of Donald Trump and his supporters.” Here’s what to know about the pardons: