In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin detailed the list of crimes committed by January 6 rioters President Trump pardoned, which keeps growing longer
WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, detailed the list of crimes committed by January 6thinsurrectionists, including those who violently assaulted law enforcement officers, pardoned by President Trump on his first day back in office. The grim result of the insurrection was the subsequent deaths of five law enforcement officers and the injuries to approximately 140 others, many of whom are still paying the price for that day.
“It came as a shock when, on the first day of Donald Trump’s presidency, he issued a blanket pardon for those who had been convicted for that January 6 attack on the Capitol… The American people overwhelmingly disagree with the President… Eighty-three percent of them oppose the pardons that he gave. That includes 70 percent who lean Republican in their voting,” Durbin said.“Despite this overwhelming opposition, the Justice Department has now broadened the scope of President Trump’s pardons for January 6 rioters to include separate charges stemming from searches conducted during those investigations.”
Federal prosecutors recently dropped firearms cases being pursued against two January 6 defendants pardoned by President Trump—Daniel Ball and Elias Costianes. Ball and Costianes had both been charged in separate proceedings with illegally possessing weapons that law enforcement discovered during January 6-related searches.
“Just last Friday, just a few days ago, a number of these pardoned individuals decided to hold their own press conference outside the U.S. Capitol to announce their intent to sue the Justice Department for prosecuting them for this [January 6 insurrection]. Dangerous individuals included former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who had been serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy before the Trump pardon; Proud Boy Ethan Nordean, who had been serving an 18-year sentence; Dominic Pezzola, the first rioter to breach the building on January 6. He was serving a 10-year sentence for stealing a police riot shield and using it to break a window,” Durbin said. “The group paraded through the Capitol after the press conference following the same route they took on January 6, 2021. They posed for photos, chanting as they did that day ‘Whose house? Our house.’ And after the press conference, Mr. Tarrio was even arrested, again, outside the Capitol forassaulting a female counter-protestor.”
Durbin continued, “Tarrio also posted a video of himself stalking Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn, former police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. Tarrio was following them through the lobby of a hotel where the officers were attending a conference. While Tarrio followed them, he was calling out at them that they were ‘cowards’ and telling them to ‘keep walking.’ Does this sound like a man ashamed of his actions on January 6 and full of remorse? Does this sound like an innocent victim of assault? No, this sounds like a man who now thinks he is above the law with his Trump pardon and expects to be bailed out by President Trump for every crime he decides to commit.”
Durbin made the case that these individuals are a threat, and the more power and freedom they are given, the more danger they pose to our democracy and the law enforcement officers they are harassing. Just this month, dozens of former January 6 offenders joined forces on social media to compile and publicize the identities of at least 124 individuals who had been involved in their convictions—including prosecutors, judges, and FBI agents.
“The post, which has received [at least] 60,000 views, included names, photos, disparaging remarks, and demands for accountability,” Durbin said. “In January, another pardoned January 6 defendant who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers, Ryan Nichols Sr., identified in a Twitter post ‘officers in the D.C. Jail who need to be investigated for corruption and abuse,’ adding the names and LinkedIn profile photos of two D.C. Jail employees.”
Durbin concluded, “The men and women who bravely defended the members of this body deserve better than this… I hope that all of us, regardless of our political persuasion, will finally agree on one thing—violence has no place in a democracy and Donald Trump’s pardon of these 1,600 January 6 attackers is not only an insult to the Capitol police who risked their lives to stop them, but has emboldened these convicts to harass these officers and their families. Mr. President, the question for the Senate is simple. Whose side are you on? The police or the rioters.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here for TV Stations.
-30-