Trump couldn’t pardon Jan 6 rioters even if he wins in November, suggests new report

Former president Donald Trump has promised to pardon supporters of his who have been charged, convicted, and in some cases imprisoned for crimes committed during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

But according to a new report from anti-authoritarianism group Protect Democracy, he may not actually have that power even if he is returned to the White House after this year’s election.

The report, titled Checking the Pardon Power: Constitutional Limitations & Options for Preventing Abuse, lays out a number of circumstances in which a presidential pardon would not be valid because it would not be a legitimate use of the president’s authority to grant reprieves for “offenses against the United States”.

For some time now, Mr Trump has been promising to free violent Capitol rioters, including those who’ve been convicted of assaulting police officers as they stormed the US Capitol in a last-ditch, desperate effort to prevent certification of Mr Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

In one post to his Truth Social platform last month, the disgraced former president said one of his “first acts” in office if he wins a second term would be to “Free January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned”.

He has also routinely referred to the convicted violent criminals — some of whom are in prison for offences such as Seditious Conspiracy — as “horribly treated” and claims they are political prisoners who have been persecuted for their support of him and his political movement.

One Republican-appointed federal judge, Royce Lamberth, said in January that he has been “dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods” regarding the violent riot “seep into public consciousness”.

Judge Lamberth, who made the comments during sentencing