Federal judges warn against Trump’s plans to pardon J6 defendants

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who oversaw the since-dismissed January 6 case from Jack Smith against Donald Trump, has reportedly had to reassure officers who were present on that day that "the rule of law still applies," however, she now says "I’m not sure I can do that very convincingly these days," per Politico.

A Trump-appointed judge has warned Trump against issuing a blanket pardon for those arrested, while an Obama-appointed judge said Wednesday that possible efforts to pardon former Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who is serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy, would be "frightening." Trump has said that he is planning to pardon those non-violent J6 offenders, not those who have committed violence against officers.

Judges have moved ahead with January 6 cases despite defendants asking for their cases to be delayed in the possibility that Trump pardons them. Politico reported that "Judges have emphasized that his pardon power has no relationship to their obligation to mete out justice, and they have ignored, in Chutkan’s words, 'whatever happens outside this courthouse door.'"

In a 13-page statement accompanying his sentence of a J6 defendant, US District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote, "On January 6, 2021, an angry mob of rioters invaded and occupied the United States Capitol, intending to interrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. No matter what ultimately becomes of the Capital Riots cases already concluded and still pending, the true story of what happened on January 6, 2021 will never change."

In 2024, arrests connected to January 6 increased by 24 percent over the year prior. Almost 1,000 people have pleaded guilty to J6 related charges, with 68 percent of these being misdemeanors and 32 percent felonies.