When President Trump made a pledge to pardon January 6 prisoners, with the exception of those convicted of acts of violence, and commute the sentences of that latter category, that seemed like an elegant way to resolve a delicate problem of justice and fairness. //

When the list of those with commuted sentences was released, I did some exploring to see what came up. In cases of multiple charges, I chose the most serious one, of course; YMMV. //

(Amuse yourself with this search tool: Search the Index | Insurrection Index). https://insurrectionindex.org/records/ //

The bottom line is that there are only two men on the list, Dominic Pezzola and Zachary Rehl, who could plausibly be characterized as someone who engaged in anything violent. The real bright line was having an affiliation with Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, or 3-Percenters. Everyone on the list except Pezzola has one of those affiliations and was tried for seditious conspiracy. //

In my view, whatever the process, the correct result was reached. Too much fine-tuning between cases would inevitably result in disparities and hard feelings with Trump's base. The political downside, according to The Daily Beast in an article that repeats the totally debunked claim that a Capitol Police officer died in the demonstration, was marginal. "As far as they’re concerned, the issue was already litigated in November, when voters proved they didn’t actually care enough to abandon Trump over the matter." A further calculation probably was that if no one cared in 2024, they won't care in 2026 or 2028.

The only troubling part of the affair is that, given the high profile of that particular campaign promise, no one ever got around to reviewing the cases and making a pardon list until the week before the inauguration. The other troubling part is that the most unjust sentences, those of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and 3-Percenters for "seditious conspiracy," were allowed to stand while John Brennan, James Comey, and Adam Schiff are allowed to walk around free. //

DKnight Debnco
10 hours ago
In a way, Crooked Joe gave Trump a belated Xmas gift. By pardoning his family 15 minutes before leaving office, he took all the air out of the room in the media hysteria over Trump’s J6 pardons.

Trump had nothing personal to gain by granting his pardons, unlike FJB whose family could be made to talk about the family finances if they didn’t get a blanket pardon.