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Two federal judges postponed criminal trials for Jan. 6 defendants on Thursday anticipating a potential pardon from President-elect Donald J. Trump once he is sworn into office for a second term.

There has been a lot of speculation that one of the first things Trump may do on January 20 is to pardon non-violent defendants who have been charged as a result of the protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. For many, these defendants are little more than political prisoners being prosecuted for supporting Trump.

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Over the objection of the Justice Department, U.S. District Judges Carl Nichols and Rudolph Contreras — Trump and Obama appointees, respectively — said they wanted to conserve court resources and avoid hauling in dozens of potential jurors for cases that might be called off in a few weeks.

It’s the first time federal judges have acquiesced to the demands of Jan. 6 defendants for delays in anticipation of potential pardons from Trump, who has pledged to grant clemency to many people charged for their role in the attack on the Capitol.

The remarkable occurrence here is that the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is still arresting people nearly four years later for the protest that got out of hand — more than 1,400 have already been charged in what has been an unprecedented dragnet by the FBI.

Just this week, it was reported that former Detroit Lions draft pick Antwione Williams has been arrested on two felony charges related to Jan. 6, including an assault charge, the Daily Mail reported. Williams was seen allegedly breaking through police barricades set up outside the Capitol and getting into a shoving match with one officer.

Using images of Williams, who was wearing a New Era Golf hat and had a keychain hanging on his right pant leg, which included a red key fob linked to Chevrolet vehicles, the FBI scoured social media to identify the former NFL player who played just one season with the Lions before being waived in 2017.

To get a further idea of how far the bureau is going to go to arrest those present at the protest, agents reviewed credit card records from an account thought to belong to Williams and found a January 6, 2021 purchase for “Colonial Parking Lot #863,” which is located at a train station in the nearby suburb of Arlington, VA, according to the Daily Mail. Several train lines include a stop just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

Citing a law enforcement official, NBC News reported last week that the FBI was scurrying to get more Jan . 6 arrests in before Trump is back in the White House, with the DOJ planning to focus on arresting the “most egregious” Jan. 6 rioters who have not yet been arrested, with a special emphasis on those “who committed felony assaults on law enforcement officers.”

Tom Tillison
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