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On 07 Jan 2024, Mad Dogs Barking <nowomr@protonmail.com> posted some news:unf60d$17gg4$2@dont-email.me:

Every DOJ "investigator" judge and jury who convicted these Jan 6
patriots should be executed for treason themselves. Their families
should be rounded up, tarred and feathered. No mercy.

In the three years to the day since the insurrection at the US Capitol,
great strides have been made in shoring up American democracy: hundreds
of rioters have been prosecuted, legislation has been passed to bolster electoral safeguards and Donald Trump has been charged over his efforts
to subvert the 2020 election.

But as the country marks the third anniversary of one of its darkest
days in modern times, a pall hangs in the air. It comes from Trump
himself and his promise, growing steadily louder as the 2024
presidential election approaches, that if he wins he will pardon those convicted of acts of violence, obstructing Congress and seditious
conspiracy on 6 January 2021.

Trump allies behind January 6 also leading Biden impeachment, says
watchdog Read more
The scope of Trump’s pardon pledge is astonishing both for its quantity
and quality. The former president has made clear that – should he be
confirmed as the Republican presidential candidate and go on to triumph
in the November election – he would contemplate pardoning every one of
those prosecuted for their participation in the insurrection.

Last May he reposted on his Truth Social platform the slogan: “Free all
J-6 political prisoners”. A few months earlier he told a rightwing
website that “we’ll be looking very, very seriously at full pardons”.

A total or near-total pardon would encompass hundreds of cases. The US Department of Justice has conducted what it describes as the largest investigation in its history following the storming of the Capitol
building and has so far secured almost 900 convictions either at trial
or through guilty pleas.

About 350 cases are still ongoing.

Then there is the quality. Trump has specifically threatened to pardon
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the extremist group the Proud Boys
who with 22 years in prison has received the longest sentence yet handed
down for the insurrection.

Tarrio was found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Though he was not
present in the Capitol compound on 6 January 2021, prosecutors presented evidence that he had helped coordinate the storming of the building and
on the day itself had sent encouraging messages on social media.

The judge at his sentencing, Timothy Kelly, said he was sending a strong message: “It can’t happen again,” he said.

In September Trump told NBC News that he would “certainly look at”
pardoning Tarrio. “He and other people have been treated horribly …
They’ve been persecuted.”

Jamie Raskin, the Democratic congressman from Maryland, said that
Trump’s pledge to pardon rioters showed that “January 6 never ended.
Today is January 6.”

Speaking at an event on Friday organised by End Citizens United and Let
America Vote in advance of the third anniversary, Raskin, who was
present at the Capitol as the riot unfolded and who went on to lead the
second impeachment of Trump following the upheaval, lamented how the
former president wanted to set convicted criminals free. “Trump is out
there saying he’s going to pardon people who engaged in political
violence, who bloodied and wounded and hospitalized 150 of our
officers.”

Raskin added that Trump’s threat should be taken seriously. “We better
believe him. I mean, he pardoned Roger Stone, a political criminal; he
pardoned Michael Flynn, his disgraced former national security adviser,”
he said. “Now he wants to pardon the shock troops of January 6, so he
will have this roving band of people willing to commit political
violence and insurrection for him – how dangerous is that?”

As NPR has noted, anyone pardoned by Trump for felonies arising from 6
January 2021 would be entitled to legally own guns once more.

Trump’s statements on possible pardons are in keeping with the general
stance towards the insurrection he has expressed over the past three
years. He has repeatedly described the attack as a “beautiful day” and
those who took part in it as “great, great patriots” who since their
arrests have become “hostages”.

At his rallies, he has boomed through loudspeakers a recording of jailed January 6 rioters singing The Star-Spangled Banner.

There are alarming indications that for a sizable portion of the US
electorate, his whitewashing of that fateful day appears to be working.
A poll from the Washington Post and the University of Maryland this week
found that a quarter of all Americans think the FBI was probably or
definitely behind the US Capitol assault – a figure rising to more than
a third of Republicans.

Biden has indicated that he will make January 6, and Trump’s response to
it over the past three years, a key aspect of his re-election bid. The president put the threat posed to democracy by Trump at the centre of
his first major speech of the 2024 election year.

Biden’s address was delivered on Friday afternoon pointedly in Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania. That is where George Washington and the continental
army were headquartered during the American revolution.

A new advert released by the Biden campaign this week replays video
footage of the storming of the Capitol three years ago. Biden is heard
saying: “There is something dangerous happening in America. There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our
democracy.”

Barack Obama pardoned thousands of drug dealers and addicts. How did
that work out?

https://1ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2024 %2Fjan%2F06%2Ftrump-pardon-january-6-rioters-if-elected-president

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