United States | Politics and mercy

Donald Trump has rewritten the history of January 6th

By pardoning violent offenders, he ignored his own team’s advice

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.
A bleak winter’s dayPhotograph: Getty Images
|Raleigh, North Carolina

“THIS IS A big one,” Donald Trump said as he signed a clemency order for nearly 1,600 January 6th rioters just hours after being sworn into office. By evening Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, who had served three years of a 22-year sentence in federal prison for choreographing the attack on the Capitol in 2021, was in a holding cell in Louisiana awaiting release. Back in Miami, Mr Tarrio says a full pardon was what he expected “from day one after the election”.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Liberation day”

From the January 25th 2025 edition

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