New US administration: Trump’s triumphant criminals and doubts about the legal system

Shortly after the new US President Donald Trump pardoned all perpetrators of the Capitol attack, many convicts were released – and triumphant. In various places across the country, in the first hours after Trump’s inauguration, prisoners convicted of their role in the violent storming of the House of Representatives four years ago were released. These include people who brutally beat police officers and other security forces back then.

The best-known defendants with the highest prison sentences – the former frontmen of the two right-wing radical groups “Oath Keepers” and “Proud Boys”, Stewart Rhodes and Henry “Enrique” Tarrio – were also released just hours after Trump took office. They expressed satisfaction.

Trump’s rigorous, total pardon of all hundreds of criminals on January 6, 2021 surprised even those close to him. High-ranking Democrats and ex-police officers reacted with outrage and extreme alarm. Trump justified his decision, saying many of the punishments were “ridiculous” and “excessive.” His move proves once again that the Republican is not afraid to break taboos. But it also shows how damaged the American justice system is – and how endangered American democracy is.

Pardon for everyone – regardless of whether they are violent or not

On January 6, 2021, supporters of then-President Trump violently stormed the parliament building in Washington. Congress met there that day to formally confirm Democrat Joe Biden’s victory against Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Trump had previously egged on his supporters in a speech and for weeks beforehand with unsubstantiated claims that the election victory had been stolen from him through fraud. As a result of the riots, five people died.

Some of the rioters were charged with minor crimes – such as unlawfully entering the Capitol, resisting police officers, breaking windows, destroying items in the building or stealing. Others were convicted of serious crimes, for example because they beat police officers with sticks, metal rods or fists or had carefully planned the attack to sabotage the transition of power.

Trump had promised from the start to pardon convicted supporters of that time. However, he emphasized several times that he wanted to look at each individual case. His vice president, JD Vance, said in a television interview a few days before the inauguration: “Anyone who committed violence that day should of course not be pardoned.” His boss obviously saw things differently and ordered everyone to be released – regardless of whether they were violent or not.

Rhodes and Tarrio were not present at the riot themselves. But they orchestrated their people from the background, some of whom appeared at the Capitol in full riot gear and had been preparing the attack for a long time. Both Rhodes and Tarrio were found guilty of, among other things, “seditious conspiracy” – a crime that has rarely been used in US judicial history. Rhodes received 18 years in prison, Tarrio even 22 years. They were accused of having forged a plot with the aim of using violence to prevent the transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election. Now they are free men.

Tarrio made the comments in an interview with right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones shortly after his release. The right-wing extremist said he was speechless with joy. “22 years is not a short sentence. (…) Trump literally gave me my life back.” Referring to the imprisonment for him and other Proud Boys, he said: “We went through hell. And I’m telling you, it was worth it.”

Shortly after his release from a prison in the state of Maryland, Rhodes also appeared in front of a detention center in the capital Washington to express his solidarity with other prisoners. “President Trump did the right thing,” said the man with the distinctive eye patch there, complaining that he and the others did not get a fair trial.

“There’s a new sheriff in town”

At prisons in various cities across the United States, January 6 inmates were welcomed and celebrated by family, friends and supporters. At a detention center in the capital Washington, an older man wearing a Trump wool hat and a Trump flag over his shoulder was waiting for his two adult children to be released. They were jailed because, among other things, they brutally beat police officers on January 6, 2021. While waiting, the father told journalists how proud he was of his children and that this was a day of victory. Referring to Trump, he said: “There’s a new sheriff in town.”

In fact, with Trump in power in the USA, some people feel like they have been transported back to the “Wild West”. Police officer Michael Fanone, who was on duty at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was bludgeoned and maltreated with a stun gun, told CNN that after his tormentors were pardoned, he now fears for his safety and that of his children.

But Trump’s decision also raises the question of the state of America’s justice system. A US president has the constitutional authority to shorten the sentences of perpetrators convicted under federal law or to pardon those convicted entirely – even retrospectively, i.e. after a sentence has been served. But the fact that Trump is using this authority to release violent criminals who have injured American police officers and who – fueled by himself – tried to stop the peaceful and democratic transfer of power in the USA is unprecedented. Trump evades questions about this and pretends to have no idea who exactly has been pardoned. And: He points to his predecessor Biden.

Shortly before the end of his term in office, he preemptively pardoned his son, his siblings and their spouses, as well as Democratic representatives and former government officials – in order to protect the son from prison and everyone else from possible prosecution by Trump’s government. The Democrat had previously categorically ruled this out and years ago criticized preventative pardons as wrong. His about-face hasn’t exactly contributed to confidence in the justice of the US judiciary.

The system is inherently very politicized. Presidents select judges for the federal courts and the Supreme Court and compete to see who can get more nominations in one term because it is very helpful in enforcing their policies to have sympathetic judges when their decisions are legally challenged. Now more than ever, the USA needs a justice system that is beyond reproach.