Former United States President Donald Trump said that he would be looking "very seriously" into giving full pardons to people charged in relation to storming the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, if he decides to run for another term as president in the 2024 elections.
During an interview with conservative radio host Wendy Bell on Thursday, the former president further said that he would consider it "very strongly and very favorably." Trump added that he was "financially supporting" some of the defendants who were in his office just a few days ago.
Trump's Full Pardon for Jan. 6 Rioters
Trump called what happened to the suspect's a "disgrace" and denounced the treatment of the individuals. While the former president teased a potential 2024 election run, he stopped short of actually announcing it during the interview.
When Bell asked Trump if he would announce his run on the show, the former president said, "Well, the time is coming closer and I think you're gonna be really happy. You have campaign finance laws that [don't] allow you to, it's crazy," as per The Hill.
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions for comments regarding the interview or the former president's plans to support the defendants involved in the Jan. 6 riot. The Republican businessman's remarks also came on the same day that President Joe Biden is set to deliver a prime-time speech from Philadelphia about protecting democracy.
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During Biden's speech, he is expected to warn that Americans' rights and freedoms are "under attack," said one White House official. It is still unclear whether or not the president will explicitly mention Trump during the Thursday address. However, plans for the speech suggest that he would at least allude to the former president and the false claims about the 2020 election.
According to the Washington Post, Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol building as Congress was confirming Biden's electoral college win in the 2020 elections. The incident was dubbed the worst attack on the seat of democracy in more than two centuries.
Legal Battles
The Jan. 6 insurrection resulted in four people dead, and an officer who had been sprayed with a powerful chemical irritant, Brian D. Sicknick, suffered a stroke and died the next day. Roughly 140 members of law enforcement were injured as a large group of rioters attacked them using flagpoles, baseball bats, stun guns, bear spray, and pepper spray.
As a result of the Capitol riot, the House impeached Trump for inciting the violent attack and failing to stop his followers from storming the building. The former president's remarks also come as he is battling in court over top-secret documents that he took to his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office and did not return despite being subpoenaed.
The situation also comes as a former New York Police Department officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting a police officer on Jan. 6, 2021. The suspect, identified as Thomas Webster, unsuccessfully tried to convince a Washington, DC, jury that he was acting in self-defense when he assaulted a police officer during the insurrection, CNN reported.
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