Top Lawyer for Jan. 6 Defendants Predicts Blanket Pardon From Trump

Demonstrators breached security and entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress debated the 2020 presidential election. Brent Stirton/Getty Images

John Pierce, a lawyer who has represented more than 50 defendants who were charged in relation to the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, says he thinks a “blanket pardon” is coming.

On Nov. 5, American voters elected former President Donald Trump to a second, nonconsecutive term in the Oval Office.

In a statement issued to The Epoch Times on Nov. 11, Trump–Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the president-elect “will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis.”

While on the campaign trail, Trump constantly made references to the Jan. 6 “patriots” and often played a video at his rallies of those who were imprisoned for their actions on that day.

He also said during his campaign that he would take action on the Jan. 6 cases as soon as his first day in office.

Trump is set to return to the White House on Jan. 20, 2025.

As of Nov. 6, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said, more than 1,500 people had received criminal charges in a federal court due to their connection to what the DOJ called an “attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

Pierce, founder and managing partner of John Pierce Law, told The Epoch Times on Nov. 11 that he’s “cautious optimistic” that all who have been charged will be pardoned “as soon as [Trump] takes office.”

“These prosecutions are largely, if not entirely, political,” said Pierce, who’s the chairman of the National Constitutional Law Union, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization, and has also worked on behalf of former Trump White House advisers George Papadopoulos and Carter Page.

“The American people have spoken very decisively, from a political standpoint, for a candidate that ran explicitly on the idea of pardoning the defendants.”

In a statement given to The Epoch Times on Nov. 6, Nayib Hassan, a criminal defense lawyer at Nayib Hassan P.A., didn’t mention a pardon for Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, a client he’s representing, but said, “We remain hopeful that the courts will reconsider the merits of our appeal, and we are optimistic about what lies ahead.”

In September 2023, Tarrio, a former national chairman of the Proud Boys, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 22 years in prison and 36 months of supervised release for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Capitol breach.

At the time, the Department of Justice said it was the longest sentence yet handed down in connection to the Capitol breach.

Despite Trump’s victory, the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia are continuing with their prosecutions.

Pierce said a recent request for continuance that he submitted on behalf of a client, Stephanie Baez, was denied, indicating the DOJ’s current approach to the ongoing cases.

“The investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the attack moves forward,” a Nov. 6 statement from the DOJ said.

“In particular, the department continues to pursue those criminally culpable, especially those who assaulted law enforcement officers and engaged in disruptive or obstructive conduct that interfered with the peaceful transfer of power.”

Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms continue to list three men—Evan Neumann, Adam Villarreal, and Paul Belosic—among its “most wanted“ fugitives.

All three are suspected of taking violent action on Jan. 6, 2021.