While revealing his plans of first day in office, President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that he plans to pardon supporters involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, describing their imprisonment as "living in hell."
Trump also said he believes the House members on the select Jan. 6 committee who investigated the 2021 Capitol riot, including Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, "should go to jail." His comments were made in an exclusive interview with Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker.
"I'm going to be acting very quickly. First day," Trump said, later adding about their imprisonment, "they've been in there for years, and they're in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn't even be allowed to be open."
Trump acknowledged that his proposed pardons would "have some exceptions," specifying cases where individuals were "radical" or "crazy."
Since the Capitol riot, at least 1,572 individuals have faced charges, with more than 1,251 convicted or pleading guilty. Of these, at least 645 have received sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years in federal prison, NBC News reported. Around 250 individuals remain in custody, most serving sentences post-conviction, while a few are held in pretrial detention as ordered by federal judges.
When asked about the more than 900 individuals who pleaded guilty in connection to the Capitol attack but were not charged with assaulting officers, Trump suggested that many were unfairly pressured into accepting plea deals.
"I know the system. The system's a very corrupt system," Trump said. "They say to a guy, 'You're going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.' And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. For two years, they've been destroyed. But the system is a very nasty system."
Welker also asked Trump if he intended to appoint "a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States, Joe Biden and the entire crime family," as he said he would last year on Truth Social.
Trump replied saying: "No, I'm not doing that unless I find something that I think is reasonable... But that's not going to be my decision." He said he would leave the decision on Pam Bondi, who he intends to name attorney general and Kash Patel, his pick for FBI director.
Trump also said that he would let Bondi decide whether to investigate special counsel Jack Smith, who brought both federal criminal cases against Trump.
"I want her to do what she wants to do... I'm not going to instruct her to do it," Trump added.
