DeSantis Doesn’t Rule out Pardoning Jan. 6 Participants in Breach of Capitol

Says there are some examples of people who should not have been prosecuted

Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump clash with police and security forces outside the Capitol Building in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Joseph Prezioso /AFP via Getty Images

As Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis restarts his presidential campaign, he took a moment to address the trials of men and women who participated in the breach of the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

When asked if, as president, he would commute or pardon those involved Mr. DeSantis did not rule it out saying there was a need to look at the cases and ensure that “a single standard of justice” was being met.

“We will look at all those cases,” he said and added: There are “some examples of people that should not have been prosecuted. They just walked into the Capitol.”

Several rulings have come down recently sentencing people to more than 15 years in prison for terrorism and insurrection.

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio Jr., the Florida-based former chairman of the Proud Boys, was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for being what presiding U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly called the “ultimate leader” of the seditious conspiracy.

Mr. Tarrio was not physically present at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Mr. DeSantis said there are “other examples of people that probably did commit misconduct. They may have been violent, but to say it’s an act of terrorism—when it was basically a protest that devolved into a riot to do excessive sentences—you can look and go, ‘Okay, maybe they were guilty.’

“But 22 years if other people that did other things got six months?”

Mr. DeSantis compared the actions of Jan. 6, which he said saw very little physical damage done, with the destructive Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots in 2021.

“If they were BLM, they would not have been prosecuted,” he said. “We'll use pardons and commutations as appropriate to ensure that everyone is treated equally and as we know, a lot of people with the BLM riots, they didn’t get prosecuted at all.”

To issue a commutation is to change a previously issued legal penalty to a lesser one.

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on Aug. 12, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

DeSantis Previously on Jan. 6

Mr. DeSantis’s comments come after he expressed resistance to dwelling on the “insurrection” during the first Republican debate on Aug. 23.

“This election is not about Jan. 6 of 2021,” he said that night. “It’s about Jan. 20 of 2025 when the next president is going to take off.

“I know what the Democrats would like to do. They want to talk about all these other issues but we’ve got to focus on your future. We’ve got to focus on reversing the decline of our country.”

Mr. DeSantis reaffirmed at the debate that he has “no beef” with Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to ratify the 2020 election, and in an earlier interview with Megyn Kelly, said he was conflicted by the idea of pardoning President Donald Trump should he be convicted of a crime.

“It doesn’t seem like it would be a good thing,” Mr. DeSantis, citing the hit President Gerald Ford took when pardoning President Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal.

“But at the end of the day, it’s like, do we want to move forward as a country? Or do we want to be mired in these past controversies?

“I think the public wants a fresh start.”

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors national summit at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown in Philadelphia on June 30, 2023. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Mr. DeSantis has continued to call for an end to the “weaponization” of justice and federal agencies, demanding that the single standard is upheld.

Touting that he is the only governor who has removed state attorneys who refused to uphold the law.

The Florida governor remains far behind the former president in the polls.

He made a direct appeal to “Ride-or-Die” Trump supporters on Sept. 6, saying: “Nobody in the United States—in the Republican Party—has delivered more on America-first policies and principles than me.”

There is a new push in Colorado to have Trump disqualified from the primary ballot due to his involvement in the events of Jan. 6.

The governor’s campaign did not respond to The Epoch Times on the matter before this article’s publication.

 Joseph M. Hanneman, Jackson Richman, and Dan Berger contributed to this report.