Donald Trump Pardons the January 6 Rioters

 

Let Chaos Commence! 

January 20, 2025 (Inauguration Day): The 47th President of the United States sets to work on Day 1 of his second, non-sequential term in office, and pardons, as best I can ascertain, every single January 6 rioter. 

He doesn’t just pardon the fools who entered the Capitol that day because they believed Donald’s endless lies about a “Stolen Election,” what he alternatively called a “sacred landslide election.” 

Nope, he pardons them all. 

He doesn’t pardon Roseanne Boyland, however, who needed none. She came to D.C., “Because my president asked me to come support him,” she said. So, she was there on January 6, and before she could ever go inside, if that was even her intent, she was trampled to death by the very mob “her president” had summoned. 

Trump couldn’t pardon Ashli Babbitt, either (rioter #56 on my list). After other attackers smashed the window to the lobby of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s offices, Babbitt tried to climb through and was shot and killed. She believed Donald’s lies, too, and fell hard for QAnon, as well.

Babbitt had served this country with honor.
Still, she believed Trump's lies.

 

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“Obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.” 

So, who did Donald pardon? He pardoned Kevin James Lyons (#59), who stole a wallet out of one of Nancy Pelosi’s offices, as well as a signed, framed picture of Pelosi with civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis. 

Scott Kevin Fairlamb (#69) was pardoned, even though found guilty of shoving and punching police. He had previous convictions, unrelated to January 6, for aggravated assault and simple assault. 

Trump pardoned Lonnie Leroy Coffman (#99), who showed up in D.C. on the day of the riot. Inside Coffman’s truck authorities later found an M-4 assault rifle, three handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, high-capacity magazines, and eleven Mason jars filled with homemade napalm. He also carried a pistol onto Capitol Hill grounds that day, and a search of his home later turned up twelve more Mason jar bombs. 

Christopher Worrell (#254) got a pardon he didn’t deserve. He also had a prior record, for impersonating an officer. But on January 6, what he wanted to do was spray real police with chemical spray – and he hit at least three officers in their faces before he was done. At his trial, Officer Timothy Lively, without citing Worrell specifically, said he was hit with spray at least ten times that day. A jury convicted Worrell of multiple felonies, but while awaiting sentencing he cut off his ankle monitor and absconded. He was recaptured a month later, but not before he staged an opioid overdose, hoping he’d be taken to the hospital (he was) and have a second chance to escape (he didn’t). 

Trump pardoned all these people even though just eight days earlier then-Vice President-Elect Vance assured us Donald wouldn’t. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned,” Vance said. 

Obviously. 

Vice President Mushmouth.

Sadly, President Trump missed the obvious. He pardoned Edward Lang (rioter #131), who attacked police with a baseball bat. He pardoned Emanuel Jackson, (#156), who attacked officers with a bat. A third rioter, who pounded on police, also with a bat, Christopher Finney, (#1346) somehow merited pardon. Finney showed up for the riot wearing body armor and carrying zip ties – in case he captured Mike Pence, I suppose. Donald even pardoned Joel Linn O’Donnell, (#1656) who was not arrested until January 2025, but who allegedly battered defenders of the Capitol with a fourth bat. 

The ”Law and Order” president granted a pardon to Raymond Cholod, (#857) who attacked police with an expandable baton. Ryan Samsel (#181), who had a history of domestic violence (including choking a woman until she lost consciousness), knocked down a female officer, causing her to suffer a concussion. He was pardoned. Trump pardoned Thomas Webster (#220), who punched police and pummeled them with a metal flagpole. He pardoned Nicholas James Brockhoff (#311), and Robert Scott Palmer (#312), both of whom sprayed police with a fire extinguishers, and Dr. Jackie Strayer (#360), who punched another female cop in the head. 

None of these people deserved pardons – and Trump didn’t win the 2020 election, either, meaning all these rioters were fools. 

 Mitchell Todd Gardner II (#785) sprayed police with chemical irritants. Peter G. Moloney (#1049) chose “Black Flag® Wasp, Hornet & Yellow Jacket Killer₂ spray” to show officers his love – and attacked a reporter covering the riot – simultaneously attacking democracy and the free press. 

Kyle J. Young (#354) was already a convicted felon on the day of the riot, when he did his “patriotic duty,” and helped drag Officer Michael Fanone into the mob. Young was carrying a taser, which he handed to another rioter, who used it on Fanone. That rioter, Daniel Joseph Rodriguez (#553), drove it repeatedly into the fallen officer’s neck – causing him to suffer a heart attack. 

Edward Lang in action: January 6.

John Emanuel Banuelos (#618), was arrested in 2022 and charged with shooting and killing a teenager in a Utah park; but on January 6, he carried a gun to Capitol Hill and allegedly fired it in the air. Like many of these rioters, he managed to delay his court case repeatedly, and in May 2024, he cursed the judge, and predicted, “Trump’s going to be back in office in 6 months, I’ve got nothing to worry about.” 

And he was right. 

The list of people who should not have been pardoned is long and depressing. You can include Andy Steven Oliva-Lopez (#1321), nicknamed “Blue Plaid Sprayer” by online sleuths who helped identify him for authorities. “Blue Plaid” hosed officers with mace and re-posted a Trump tweet before the riot: “WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” And that explained why he was there on January 6. 

We should include Michael Joseph Foy (#154), who repeatedly struck a fallen policeman with a hockey stick. 

We would be remiss if we failed to include Julian Khater (#243), who sprayed Officer Brian Sicknick and others with bear spray. Sicknick suffered a debilitating reaction and died of a heart attack the next day. 

(Four other officers committed suicide in the aftermath of the attack, a toll Donald Trump has never acknowledged.) 

Statement read by Gladys Sicknick, Officer Sicknick's widow,
at trial for Julian Khater.

In total, the rioters caused almost $3,000,000 in damages, with Justin LaGesse (#1316) being found guilty of wrecking a window and ordered to pay $43,215. 

He was pardoned. 

We could list a hundred more, but let’s just add Stephen Chase Randolph (#404), and Paul Russell Johnson (#405), to the list of the disgraced, and call it a day. On what President Trump has described as “a day of love and peace,” Randolph grabbed an officer around the neck, and two other officers had to pull the rioter lose. Johnson felt compelled to do his “share,” and bragged about a video of himself “slinging” an officer around. They kicked, they punched, they believed Donald’s lies. 

Now they’ve all been pardoned, which tells you what kind of “Law and Order” leader President Trump plans to be during his second term. 

Even worse, Mr. Trump has described these criminals as “people who love this country,” which I fear is true, as far as simple phrases go. But their love is akin to the love of a violent ex-husband, when he learns his ex is dating someone new, and so he kicks in the back door to the house where she’s living and begins beating her head on a kitchen counter, while their two young children scream.

It's fine if you spray police with chemicals - if you do it for Donald Trump.

 

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There’s a reason that, as Trump left office the first time, a group of presidential historians ranked him as only the 42nd best president – which if you don’t remember the numbering, means he finished ahead of only three other occupants of the Oval Office. Those three: Franklin Pierce (43rd), Andrew Johnson (44th) and James Buchanan (45th and last). 

No telling, yet, where the historians will rate President Biden; but with Trump’s first actions of his term as the 47th President of the United States, he puts himself immediately on course to finish last this time around.

 

POSTSCRIPT: The same group of historians puts out fresh rankings every Presidents’ Day. In 2024, they had Mr. Biden in fourteenth place, one place behind John Adams, another one-term holder of the highest office, and one place ahead of Woodrow Wilson, who led the country during World War I. 

(I used to ask my students to guess which three presidents are usually ranked at the top; so, I will leave it to my readers to guess which three men finished at the top.) 

By that time, Trump’s antics had convinced the political scientists to reconsider his position – and they had dropped him into last. 

That is: 46th place.

No longer in last place!