The Capitol Police union and other law enforcement groups sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s pardons for his supporters who attacked the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, a move that cut against years of pro-police messaging from Republican members of Congress.
The union wrote in a statement Tuesday that political leaders should not excuse violence against law enforcement officers in the line of duty. Officers defended the building and the members of Congress during the violent attack.
“This use of presidential power is not what Americans want to see and it’s not what law enforcement officers deserve,” the Capitol Police union said.
Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, in a CBS interview, said the president’s action “sends the message that politics is more important than policing, and my officers go out there every day and enforce the law impartially.”
The DC Police Union, which represents officers, detectives and sergeants in the Metropolitan Police Department, expressed “dismay” over the recent pardons granted to people convicted of assaulting officers during the 2021 attack.
“Anyone who assaults a law enforcement officer should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, without exception,” a statement from the union said.
And the Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign, joined the International Association of Chiefs of Police in a joint statement that said crimes against law enforcement “undermine the rule of law.”
“Allowing those convicted of these crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families,” the groups said.
Trump on Monday pardoned nearly all the rioters charged in connection to the attack, wiping away criminal accountability and going further than some of his allies in Congress had suggested.
More than 1,500 people have faced charges for their roles in the attack on the Capitol, and the cohort included more than 100 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or seriously injuring a police officer.
“What happened to backing the Blue?” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “Far right extremists have become the party of lawlessness and disorder.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a press conference Wednesday that he does not “second guess” the president’s decisions.
“The president’s made a decision. We move forward,” Johnson said. “There are better days ahead of us. That’s [what] we’re excited about. We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forwards.”
But Johnson, later in the press conference, implied that Republicans would be looking backward at the preemptive pardons that President Joe Biden issued for members of his family days ago.
And later Wednesday, Johnson announced plans to set up a new select subcommittee to continue a Republican investigation into “all events leading up to and after January 6,” according to a press release.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., who has previously downplayed the attack, argued on Wednesday that Trump’s move was the right thing to do. “It’s a promise made, promise kept,” he said.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said he wishes the pardons were more targeted. People who did not vandalize property should get some mercy, but that should not extend to people who hit police or broke windows.
“Republicans want to be the pro-law enforcement party,” he said. “I think all the labor unions that support law enforcement support us and we should protect that.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, denounced the pardons for violent offenders who assaulted law enforcement.
“The Capitol Police officers are the backbone of Congress— every day they protect and serve the halls of democracy,” she said in a social media post Wednesday.
Trump and his allies have sought to downplay and minimize the attack, in which rioters stormed the Capitol in his name during the congressional process to count electoral votes, delaying the transfer of power.
Some conservatives have spread falsehoods and sought to rewrite the history, casting the defendants as “hostages” even though they have been subject to due process protections.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, who led the now-disbanded House select committee that investigated the Capitol attack — created by Democrats during the 117th Congress — said he’s concerned about what some Jan. 6 defendants might do when they get out.
“If you back the blue,” the Mississippi Democrat said. “Then obviously you would oppose people who have either pled guilty or been found guilty of assaulting law enforcement.”
Justin Papp and Michael Macagnone contributed to this report.
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