Jeffries: Trump's release of violent Jan. 6 felons 'undermines public safety'

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) hammered President Trump on Thursday for pardoning those charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, warning that the liberation of hundreds of incarcerated felons endangers public safety.

“The release of violent felons who brutally beat police officers and women doesn't make America safer,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol. “It undermines public safety in community after community after community in the United States of America.”

Trump on Monday issued an executive order pardoning almost all of the more than 1,500 people prosecuted for their actions at the Capitol four years ago, when a mob of his supporters stormed the building in a failed attempt to overturn his election defeat. Trump also commuted the sentences of 14 others who represented the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two far-right nationalist groups that have promoted violence to achieve their goals.

Among those released were Enrique Tarrio, former head of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, who were both convicted of seditious conspiracy and were serving lengthy prison sentences.

Trump’s move made good on a campaign pledge to pardon those charged after the riot, a group he has characterized as patriots.

But the scope of his order surprised many in Washington — including a number of Republicans — who had expected the reprieve to be limited to those who were not charged with violent offenses. Instead, Trump offered clemency even to those who had attacked police officers with a variety of makeshift weapons, including fire extinguishers, flagpoles and wasp spray. More than 140 officers were injured in the rampage.

The blanket pardons have undermined the GOP’s claims to be the party of law and order and personal responsibility, and a number of Republicans have condemned Trump’s decision.

“It’s not right,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), who was among the seven Senate Republicans to vote in favor of convicting Trump on the impeachment charge of inciting insurrection on Jan. 6. “People who assault police officers — if they do the crime, they should do the time.”

Still, the GOP leaders of both chambers — Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.C.) — have defended Trump’s move. Thune said the blitz of pardons issued by former President Biden on his way out the door — including those benefiting members of his family — set the precedent for Trump’s clemency orders. Johnson said Republicans “believe in redemption.”

Those arguments aren’t sitting well with Democrats, who are accusing Trump and his GOP allies in the Capitol of betraying the same law enforcers who are charged with protecting them.

“Shame on my House Republican colleagues,” Jeffries said during his press briefing. “What happened to backing the blue?”

On the stage beside Jeffries was a poster featuring Daniel Ball, a Florida man who was arrested last year for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack. He was granted clemency Monday and arrested again on Wednesday on federal gun charges.

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