Did Trump's Pardon of the J6ers "End a grave national injustice"? A J6 Defense Lawyer Speaks

• In Event: Aspects of State Crime

Abstract

President Donald Trump pardoned more than 1,500 "January 6" defendants on his first day in office in 2025. Trump’s proclamation stated “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”

Trump's mass pardon of "J6ers" was met by condemnation from throughout news media, academia, and the legal system. Many voices denounced the pardons as an attempt by Trump to whitewash or falsify the narrative of January 6. But was there something to Trump's assessment that the J6 prosecutions were a grave national injustice?

In this paper, a J6 defense lawyer who tried 14 J6 cases and argued four J6 appeals before the DC Circuit addresses all sides of this issue. The author concludes that January 6 prosecutions were indeed a grave injustice that merited Trump's clemency. The cases produced inordinately high conviction rates, and produced the harshest average sentences ever associated with political rioting in American history. Federal prosecutors relied on novel theories of the law and utilized federal statutes in ways never before seen. The author will answer questions and criticisms.

Author

• Roger Roots, Lysander Spooner University