Vance: Jan. 6 Rioters Who ‘Committed Violence’ Should Not Be Pardoned

Vice president-elect J.D. Vance drew a line delineating which Jan. 6 criminals and defendants will be considered for a pardon by the incoming Trump administration.

“I think it’s very simple. If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6, and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned,” Vance said in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News Sunday. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

But Vance left himself some wiggle room, adding, “There’s a little bit of gray area there, but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law, and there are a lot of people we think in the wake of Jan. 6 who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that.”

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to issue pardons “very quickly” for Jan. 6 rioters but said there may be “some exceptions” where pardons may not be given to people who acted “radical” or “crazy” during the riot. However, Trump has justified some of the violence that day, saying that rioters who assaulted police officers “had no choice” but to attack.

“I’m going to look at everything. We’re going to look at individual cases,” Trump said.

During the campaign, Trump called Jan. 6 a “day of love.” He evoked sympathy for Jan. 6 defendants, playing the “J6 Prison Choir’s” rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner at his rallies, recorded by inmates held for Jan. 6-related charges at the D.C. jail. According to a Just Security analysis, the vast majority of the incarcerated individuals held in that facility were charged with assaulting law enforcement officers during the attack.

“You see the spirit from the hostages,” Trump said at an Ohio rally in March after the song played, calling the singers “unbelievable patriots” who have “been treated terribly and very unfairly.”

Jan. 6 rioters have been charged with numerous crimes, ranging from trespassing to assaulting police to sedition. One judge overseeing the trial of Stewart Rhodes, the former head of the Oath Keepers militia, has warned against a pardon of Rhodes.

“The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved is frightening — and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy,” District Court Judge Amit Mehta said in court, according to Politico. Mehta sentenced Rhodes to 18 years incarceration for “seditious conspiracy.”