January 6 Anger at plans to pardon US Capitol rioters

As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, politicians, legal observers and sitting federal judges are expressing alarm about his stated intention to pardon or offer commutations to supporters who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 and were then convicted of crimes.

- Martin Pengelly Washington

Clemency for those who sought to block certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory "would undermine the US judiciary and criminal justice system and send a message to Americans that attacking US democratic institutions is appropriate and justifiable", said a spokesperson for the Society for the Rule of Law.

The group of conservative attorneys, academics and former federal officials and judges also quoted the sitting judges Royce Lamberth ("We cannot condone the normalisation of the January 6 US Capitol riot") and Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee who said: "Blanket pardons for all January 6 defendants or anything close would be beyond frustrating and disappointing."

Last month, while sentencing a member of the Oath Keepers militia who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, the most serious charge brought in relation to 6 January, the US district court judge Amit Mehta said: "The notion that Stewart Rhodes [the group's leader, jailed for 18 years on the same charge] could be absolved is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country."