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Trump said they were “hostages.” So what happens now with the January 6th cases?

Online Niel November 15, 2024

Now that Trump has won, what will happen to those cases? Here are three things to know.

Few people could be more relieved President-elect Donald Trump Pending return to the White House, the more than 1,500 Americans charged with crimes related to January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

On the campaign trail, Trump often referred to those convicted and awaiting trial on January 6. as “political prisoners” and “hostages” and said he would forgive them if he won the 2024 election.

Those convicted of serious crimes include leaders of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys militias serving sentences for crimes including seditious conspiracy.

Trump himself has been accused in a federal indictment for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, but Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is closing that case and a separate case after Trump’s victory last week.

A similar end could await the cases against the Jan. 6 defendants facing a range of felony and misdemeanor charges.

Now that Trump has won, what will happen to those cases? Here are three things to know.

How many cases are there?

There are several archives and databases that track the January 6 prosecutions. One, by National Public Radio, lists the total number of people charged with federal crimes at 1,542 as of November 8, 2024.

Of those, according to the database, 999 pleaded guilty and another 174 were convicted of all charges, while 73 were found guilty of some charges. Only three people, according to NPR countsthey were acquitted.

In total, 1,030 of these defendants were convicted.

What are some of the most important cases?

One of the most notorious cases is that against Henry “Enrique” Tarrio. The former head of the Proud Boys militant group was convicted in May 2023 of crimes including seditious conspiracy. In September 2023, Tarrio, of Miami, was sentenced to 22 years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Another former Proud Boys member, Joseph Biggs of Ormond Beach, Florida, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in August 2023.

These sentences followed the convictions of the leaders of another extremist group, the Oath Keepers. In May 2023, Elmer Stewart Rhodes III of Texas, the group’s founder, and Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, were also convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges on January 6.

Another high-profile case involves the brother and sister Jonathan Pollock and Olivia Pollock from Lakeland, Florida. The brothers traveled to Washington, DC in January 2021 for then-President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, federal prosecutors said. Following the attack, a grand jury indicted the two on charges that included assault on police officers, breaking and entering, being in a restricted area and disorderly conduct.

Jonathan Pollock was able to avoid arrest and became a fugitive, according to media reports, while Olivia Pollock was arrested but released on bail and into a monitoring program. But he turned off his GPS monitor and went into hiding just before his March 2023 court appearance, the Justice Department said.

The Pollocks have been caught and are awaiting resolution of their case.

Why does this matter?

The attack on the US Capitol nearly four years ago shocked the world. A congressional committee issued a 1,000-page report in December 2022 detailing what it called an attempted coup led by Trump and his allies.

Since then, however, opinions about the day’s violence have split along partisan lines.

A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted earlier this year found that 55 percent of voters said they believed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was an attack on American democracy, and 43 percent said it also focused attention too much on the events of the day.

About 86 percent of Democrats said the attack should not be forgotten, and 72 percent of Republicans said it’s time to move on.

In the 2024 election, January 6 was a key reason why voters worried about the fate of American democracy. An NBC News exit poll said 34 percent of voters said the state of democratic government was their most pressing issue, followed by the economy at 31 percent.

Jacob Ware, co-author of God, Guns and Rebellion, notes that organizations such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were effectively “torn apart” by the January 6 backlash and prosecutions. But the larger message, the broader hope that January 6 could serve as a lasting deterrent against political violence and insurgency, has much less traction.

“The deterrent of Jan. 6 that you think would be in place based on the allegations involved has already been eroded,” Ware said. “People were punished for the crimes they committed, and that is important from a criminal justice point of view.

“But the deterrence you would think this case, the largest investigation in American history, would have put in place has been eroded by four years of rhetoric calling them warriors, heroes, patriots, political prisoners, martyrs. And so a pardon would almost be more of a confirmation of that, as opposed to something drastic or different.”

Trump named figures in his cabinet, including Rep. Matt Gaetz as Attorney Generalwho condemned the January 6 prosecutions, including the case against Trump.

Contributing: Gary White, Lakeland Ledger

Antonio Fins is the politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Postpart of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can contact him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.