Trump pardoned hundreds in Jan. 6 attack. Here’s how many NC defendants are affected
Capitol Police worked long hours through brutally low temperatures this weekend to ensure the safety of President Donald Trump as he took his oath of office in Washington.
And within hours of becoming president for the second time, Trump pardoned 1,500 people who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s election over Trump. Many of them attacked police officers.
With the pardons, Trump forgave approximately 50 North Carolinians who had been convicted or charged in the attack.
Rep. Pat Harrigan, a freshman Republican from Hickory, said in a written statement to McClatchy that the clemency fulfilled a campaign promise Trump made.
“He was transparent about his intentions, and voters knew exactly where he stood when they cast their ballots,” Harrigan said. “That is leadership rooted in honesty and accountability.”
The deaths of five people and injuries to 174 law enforcement officers are attributed to the Jan. 6 attacks. Another four officers would die by suicide following the insurrection.
“In pardoning those who took part in the January 6, 2021 attack to overturn the vote and the voices of 80 million Americans, President Donald Trump is condoning insurrection,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, president and CEO of Common Cause, in a news release. “He issued these pardons just hours after hollowly claiming in his inaugural address that he would be a ‘law and order president.’”
Biden is also facing criticism Tuesday after preemptively pardoning his family and members of the January 6 committee, who Trump considered political enemies. Trump spoke at length about them in his second speech at the Capitol after being sworn in.
Harrigan pointed out that Biden claimed throughout his 2024 reelection campaign he would not pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted of gun crimes and tax offenses.
“Using the pardon power to shield personal connections from scrutiny undermines trust and integrity in leadership,” Harrigan said. “These actions do not serve justice or transparency but instead create more doubt about the motives of those in power. The American people deserve leaders who are honest and upfront, as President Donald Trump has been.”
‘Hostages’
Just last week, former federal prosecutor Jack Smith released a report saying he had enough evidence that Trump would have been convicted by a jury for the role he played in trying to overturn Biden’s election, but a Justice Department policy prevented the prosecution of a sitting president and forced the case’s dismissal.
Trump released Jan. 6 prisoners in the first executive order he signed from the Oval Office in his second term as president.
“These are the hostages,” Trump told reporters in the room. “Approximately 1,500 for a pardon. Full pardon.”
He added that there were six commutations, which could lessen their penalty. The number was actually 14.
“The commutations will be the ones that we’ll take a look at and maybe it will stay that way or it will go to full pardon,” Trump told reporters.
Among them are Enrique Tarrio, the former head of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, and Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, anti-government militia. Both support Trump.
Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and evidence tampering, having helped plan the insurrection. In court, a recording was played of Rhodes saying he regrets not bringing rifles to the Capitol and that he wanted to hang then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from a lamppost, CBS News reported.
The pardons extend to people convicted of seditious conspiracy, assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon, obstructing an official proceeding, assaulting officers, the act of physical violence on Capitol grounds and robbery, among other things.
Jeremy Bertino, a Proud Boys leader from the Charlotte area, pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to use force to oppose the government of the United States. That charge, among the most serious charges pursued by prosecutors, carries up to a 20-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine.
But Bertino, in a plea deal, agreed to help in the federal investigation into the Proud Boys. He also agreed to testify in their trials. Before Trump’s pardons, he was still awaiting sentencing.
Rep. Brad Knott, a freshman Republican from Raleigh, said most most of the Jan. 6 defendants “were prosecuted more harshly than they deserved for entirely political reasons.”
“Therefore, and in those cases, it was appropriate for President Trump to grant pardons and commutations,” Knott said in a text message to McClatchy. “Although I have not had a chance to review the facts of the case of each defendant who was granted a pardon or commutation, I commend President Trump for acting quickly to grant relief to hundreds who were suffering from an unjust process.”
Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat from Raleigh, who was present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, said in a news release that in pardoning the Jan. 6 prisoners, among other actions Trump took Monday, he “undermined our democracy and threatened core American values.”
North Carolina rioters
As of last week, 28 North Carolinians had been convicted of federal crimes in the Capitol riots, with their sentences ranging from 15 days to six years in prison.
One North Carolinian serving time who was freed by Trump on Monday was 24-year-old Matthew Beddingfield of Middlesex, who fought with police at the Capitol and made a Nazi salute.
He told McClatchy on Tuesday that he made the salute “in the moment” and is a “white nationalist” who maybe went too far by fighting with police. “I don’t regret it,” he said of his involvement.
About 20 additional North Carolinians had been charged.
Among them is Lee Stutts, a Marine from the Lake Norman area. He was scheduled for trial in March on 15 counts, including felony offenses of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.
Stutts has maintained his innocence.
Others had been recently charged by the U.S. Justice Department.
Trump’s pardons came one day before Paul Marvin Nowell, of Wendell, was scheduled for a federal hearing. He was charged in July with felony obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.
Christopher Carnell, 22, of Cary was convicted of felony obstruction and four misdemeanors for his participation in the insurrection. He had just been sentenced on Dec. 13 to six months in prison and one year of probation and was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine and $500 in restitution.
David Worth Bowman, 21, of Raleigh was sentenced the same day to two months in prison and a year on probation for felony obstruction of an official proceeding. He had been ordered to pay $500 in restitution.
A third North Carolinian sentenced in December, William Todd Wilson, was a member of the Oath Keepers. He received three years probation after pleading guilty to felony charges of seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding because he cooperated with Justice Department investigators.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which led the Jan. 6 prosecutions, had not commented on the pardons as of Wednesday morning. Last week, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves offered his thoughts in anticipation of pardons, though.
Prosecutors have already held defendants accountable, he told The Associated Press, and “there will always be a public record of what occurred… people who care to know the facts will be able to find out the facts.”
Graves stepped down Jan. 16 — a routine move before Trump took office because United States attorneys are political appointees.
Release
As Trump signed the executive order he told the reporters around him, “We hope they come out tonight, frankly. We’re expecting it.”
A large crowd gathered outside the prison in Washington on Monday night and Tuesday morning.
Law enforcement had to react to manage the crowd size.
Several of the prisoners hoped to go straight from the jail to one of Trump’s inaugural balls, CNN reported.
Republican reaction
Even Trump’s most staunch supporters didn’t agree with releasing all of the Jan. 6 prisoners.
Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, said on Fox News Sunday last week, “If you committed violence on that day obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned. And there is a little bit of gray area there.”
Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, told Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, that he “finds it hard to believe that the president of the United States or you would look at facts that were used to convict the violent people on January the 6th and say it was just an intemperate moment. I don’t even expect you to respond to that, but I think it’s an absurd and unfair hypothetical here.”
Tillis did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the executive order Tuesday morning, but told CNN that it raises “legitimate safety concerns on Capitol Hill.”
Charlotte Observer staff writers Ryan Oehrli and Julia Coin contributed to this story.
