BREAKING: JD Vance advocated for blanket pardon of J6ers from Day One of the transition

Taylor Van Kirk, Press Secretary to the Vice President, said in a statement, "As Vice President Vance said on Fox News Sunday, pardoning the January 6 protestors would be handled on a case-by-case basis, which of course meant there was always going to be a large degree of gray area. Due to the corrupt process of these prosecutions, President Trump rightly decided to grant a broad pardon to all wrongfully convicted January 6 protestors."

"Despite the mainstream media’s obsession with January 6, the outgoing administration’s application of presidential pardons for members of the Biden family are far more deserving of additional media scrutiny," Van Kirk added.

A source familiar with the matter said that Vance had been advocating for blanket pardons for January 6 defendants since day one of the transition.

Vance had said on Fox News Sunday earlier in January, "I think it’s very simple: Look, if you protested peacefully on January the 6th and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned. And there’s a little bit of a gray area there, but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law. And there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that."

Vance received pushback for the comments, including from commentators The Hodgetwins, who wrote, "Better rethink what you just said JD."

Vance wrote in response, "First of all, I donated to the to the J6 political prisoner fund and got ROASTED for it during my senate race. I've been defending these guys for years. Second, there were federal informants in the crowd. Do they get a pardon? I don't think so. The president saying he'll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walkback. I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial."

In the final hours of Biden’s term as president, he issued pardons for five of his family members. Pardons were issued for brother James Biden and his wife Sara Jones Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens and husband John T Owens, and brother Francis W Biden.

Biden wrote, “My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end."

Biden said, "The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense." Biden also issued a pardon for his son, Hunter, in December.

On the night of Trump's first day back in office, he signed pardons for around 1,500 January 6 defendants. Trump had vowed to issue pardons for these defendants throughout his campaign and beyond. In Trump’s cover interview with Time Magazine in December, he echoed similar comments to Vance, saying "I'm going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they've been greatly punished. And the answer is I will be doing that, yeah, I'm going to look if there's some that really were out of control."