Select Page

Monday’s Final Word

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Closing the tabs

Congress quickly and smoothly certified President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory Monday, a contrast to four years earlier, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and temporarily halted the confirmation of President Biden’s win. 

Advertisement

Unlike in 2021, when the proceedings stretched out over two days, no objections were raised. No angry crowd gathered and no lawmakers were evacuated. The proceedings wrapped up in well under an hour. But tensions over the violence of that day, which led to Trump’s second impeachment, continued to simmer.

Ed: Only because Democrats and the Protection Racket Media have a vested interest in stoking those tensions. Everywhere one looks, both keep insisting on reliving it for political purposes, even after American voters just delivered their final judgment on a one-time riot that didn’t do anything to stop the transfer of power. Congress addressed the statutory deficiencies that led to the dispute in 2022, and this election delivered a far more definitive result. 

===

===

“Pardoning such crimes would contradict Mr. Trump’s support for law and order …”

On the contrary, it would fit quite well.

That’s because the political slogan signifies applying the law’s blunt force to certain people and not to others, rather than a straightforward application of the law to all people, in all circumstances, no matter the consequences.

Advertisement

So in the context of Jan. 6, relieving certain people (i.e., Trump supporters) of the law’s blunt force, even if they assaulted the law’s enforcers, wouldn’t therefore contradict the “law and order” mantra. If anything, it could be its ultimate application.

Ed: We’ve already seen this “not to others” in action. The DoJ dropped all charges against the Antifa rioter of January 20, 2017, not to mention had much less enthusiasm for addressing “insurrection” in cities during 2020, when rioters seized control of whole neighborhoods for months on end. The J6 rioters broke the law, but they have been singled out for very aggressive pursuit and prosecution, as the data below shows. 

===

===

===

Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman who is serving 22 years in federal prison after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, is asking President-elect Donald Trump for a presidential pardon.

Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, wrote a letter to Trump on the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack asking for “a full and complete Presidential Pardon” from the president-elect who has vowed to pardon some rioters after he takes office on Jan. 20.

Advertisement

Ed: Trump has been careful to watch his language on this question. He has hinted at broad clemency for non-violent defendants/convicts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean full pardons. He might just commute those sentences, and may not do anything for those who organized the more aggressive parts of the J6 riots. 

===

===

===

We tallied the cumulative charges obtained by prosecutors. Cumulatively, Capitol riot defendants have been sentenced to:

  • About 1,300 years in prison for more than 650 defendants
  • An additional 1,100 years of probation and 1,100 years of supervised release
  • A total of 55 years of home detention and about four years of community service
  • More than $1.2 million in both restitution and fines

Those numbers, it’s worth mentioning, reflect defendants who were resentenced after the Supreme Court struck down the government’s use of an obstruction statute in Capitol riot cases. About half of those given prison terms were sentenced to nine months or less. The average sentence, though, is nearly two years, thanks to more than 200 sentences that exceed that duration.

Advertisement

Ed: And how many people were prosecuted and sentenced similarly for their roles in the Inauguration Day riots in 2017 that attempted to block Trump from taking office? Answer: zero. I don’t have a problem with prosecuting people who break the law, but the problem is that these laws get selectively enforced, both at the state and federal levels. 

===

===

About The Author

FreeSearch

FreeSearch PRIVATE UNCENSORED SEARCH
Search without Big Brother Watching

FreeSearch

Hot Air

HotAir Please consider becoming a VIP member today to preserve conservative journalism.

HotAir

Subscribe to
Treat yourself to current Conservative News and Commentary conveniently delivered all in one place, right to your computer doorstep.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This

Share This

Share this post with your friends!