Under Article 2 of the American Constitution, Donald Trump could “pardon” the 250 rioters still imprisoned after the events of January 6, 2021.
“I will act very quickly (…) on the first day.” During an interview with NBC News on Sunday, December 8, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump, who will be officially inaugurated on Monday, January 20, suggested that he could pardon several of his supporters who had participated in the assault from the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“We will examine individual cases,” he added during the same interview.
“There is hope”
Four years to the day after these events which shook the United States, during which 1,500 people were arrested while trying to enter the American Congress by force, 250 people, out of the 645 sentenced to sentences ranging from up to 22 years in prison, are still behind bars.
Met by BFMTV, Scott Fairlame, a former boxer himself imprisoned for 28 months and 17 days for entering the Capitol and hitting a police officer, would be affected by this presidential pardon.
For his case, this would be symbolic, his sentence having been served, and the entry in the criminal record ineradicable in American law. However, the former detainee thinks in particular of the other supporters, still imprisoned.
“If that’s the case for me, thank you. I’m more worried about those who are behind bars right now. I’m happy for them because hope is a very beautiful thing, there is hope that grace be granted to them,” he said.
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And Scott Fairlame indicates the consequences that his detention had on his life: “I pleaded guilty only because I knew that I would not have the right to a fair trial. I lost my job, I lost my house, I found myself with nothing,” he says.
The Americans are opposed to it
In the United States, presidential pardon is a right conferred by Article 2 of the Constitution. Since a 1997 Supreme Court ruling which regulates this right, the American president can “commute sentences, grant amnesty or pardon individuals or organizations charged or convicted, but only in the federal criminal context”.
If Donald Trump does indeed choose to pardon some, or all, of his supporters, this decision is likely to greatly divide Americans. According to a recent survey, 60% of them said they were opposed to this pardon.
However, he would not be the first American leader to use this right against the advice of part of his country. At the beginning of December, Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, found guilty in cases of tax fraud and illegal possession of a firearm.
This controversial pardon, two months before releasing his post at the White House, had also provoked the ire of Donald Trump. “Does the pardon granted by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 hostages (the Capitol rioters, editor’s note), who have now been imprisoned for years? What abuse and what denial of justice”, he had precisely written on his Truth social network.
