Some judges reject DOJ claim that Jan. 6 pardons apply to other crimes - WaPo
At least 10 defendants accused of other crimes when the FBI came to search their homes after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot have invoked the pardon issued by President Donald Trump to claim that his order also clears them of the secondary charges, and in most of those cases federal prosecutors have joined with the defendants.
But on four occasions recently, federal judges have said no, disagreeing even as the Justice Department argued in favor of broadly applying the president’s pardon. In strongly worded opinions, federal judges in Washington and Baltimore have refused to grant dismissals, describing the government’s requests as “unreasonable” and “acting in bad faith.”
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While Trump’s power to issue pardons is essentially unlimited, the judges — appointed by presidents of both parties, including two chosen by Trump — are telling defendants that if the crime was not committed in D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump’s Inauguration Day order will not make it go away.
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In four cases, prosecutors have not tried to dismiss secondary cases against Jan. 6 defendants, including two in which men were allegedly found with child pornography and one in which a man plotted to kill the FBI agents who investigated his Capitol riot actions. Bredar and Friedrich cited the government’s inconsistent positions as another reason to reject prosecutors’ requests to dismiss cases.
For almost all of the 1,600 people charged with crimes at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump issued pardons on Jan. 20 of this year. The pardon certificate states, “The pardon applies only to convictions for offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
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