Trump judge scoffs at right-wing claim jailed January 6 rioters are ‘hostages’

The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s election interference case has rejected the notion that jailed defendants charged with some of the most violent crimes of the US Capitol riot are “hostages”

It is the label Trump and his allies have frequently used to describe the prisoners.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said the Capitol riot defendants who remain jailed in Washington, D.C., don’t deserve to be called hostages or heroes for their actions during the mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

“They’re being kept there because they are dangerous people,” Chutkan said during a sentencing hearing for Antony Vo, a man convicted of storming the Capitol with his mother.

During his trial, Vo attended a nightly vigil that supporters of Jan. 6 riot defendants hold outside the Washington jail. The judge previously ruled that Vo’s attendance at the vigil violated a condition of his release.

Chutkan rolled her eyes and shook her head when she learned from a prosecutor during Wednesday’s hearing that the vigil’s organizers refer to their gathering spot outside the jail as “Freedom Corner.”

“Is that what’s it’s called? Freedom Corner?” the judge asked, sounding incredulous.

At a November 2023 campaign event in Houston, Trump referred to the jailed riot defendants as “J6 hostages, not prisoners.” Trump campaign rallies have started with a recording of jailed Capitol riot defendants singing the national anthem. In June 2023, Trump spoke at a fundraiser benefiting Jan. 6 defendants.

“I’m gonna make a contribution,” Trump said. “There have been few people that have been treated in the history of our country like the people that you love, like the people that have gone through so much.”

Trump’s trial in Washington for the election