New president Donald Trump’s move to pardon more than 1,500 people convicted over their role in the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 2021 reportedly led to a scuffle outside of a Washington DC prison housing the inmates on Monday night.
Swiftly following his inauguration ceremony at the Capitol rotunda yesterday, which saw the billionaire real estate mogul sworn-in as America’s 47th commander-in-chief and return to the White House after a four year absence, Trump signed off on a slew of executive orders, covering everything from immigration to climate and trans rights.
One of those saw Trump issue presidential pardons to virtually all of the 1,583 people convicted over their actions as part of the assault on the Capitol in 2021 that saw a pro-Trump mob attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
The president also commuted the sentences of 14 convicted members of the far-right militia groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to time served on Monday and ordered that pending cases be dismissed.
“These are the hostages,” Trump said as he signed the orders in the Oval Office of the White House.
“We hope they come out tonight, frankly. These people have been destroyed.
“What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like it in the history of our country.”
News of his action appeared to inspire the subsequent scuffle outside of the Central Detention Center in Washington DC on Monday evening, according to Mediaite, as police were forced to push back against a crowd composed of families waiting outside for the release of their loved ones and protesters opposed to the pardons.
The scene was documented in a number of videos posted to X.
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan reported from the jail on Anderson Cooper’s show, recounting how law enforcement had been seen reacting to a crowd surge, although it was not clear on the ground at that moment that Trump’s announcement was the likely cause of the agitation.
NewsNation’s Brian Entin posted a video of his own on X reporting: “Family and supporters of January 6th defendants are waiting for them to be released after the pardons. Timing is unclear.
“Police pushed crowd back from the doors. Most people are across the street now.”
This is the scene outside the Central Detention Center in Washington DC where family and supporters of January 6th defendants are waiting for them to be released after the pardons.
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) January 21, 2025
Timing is unclear.
Police pushed crowd back from the doors. Most people are across the street now. pic.twitter.com/NorWVfPc7h
Independent documentarian Ford Fischer likewise reported on X: “Crowd including media and supporters rushed toward entrance of DC Jail, apparently thinking someone was being released.”
Fischer added in another post that some of the supporters of the January 6 defendants on the ground were expressing concern that Bureau of Prisons staff might have been attempting to resist the president’s order but there is no evidence to support that contention.
Among the most prominent of the Capitol rioters to be granted clemency by Trump’s pardons was Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22-years behind bars for seditious conspiracy.
In one of his final acts in office on Monday, Joe Biden moved to grant pre-emptive pardons to the members of the House committee that investigated the attack, including Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, fearing their persecution by the new Trump administration.
