Trump Says He Would ‘Free The Jan. 6 Hostages’ If Elected Again

Donald Trump said again Monday that he would release Jan. 6 defendants serving prison time for their participation in the 2021 attack on the Capitol, referring to them again as “hostages.”

“My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!” the GOP presidential front-runner wrote on Truth Social.

The attack — which Trump was impeached and then federally charged for encouraging — aimed to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. And Trump has telegraphed ever since that he stands with the people who perpetrated it.

In June 2022, he saidhe would look “very, very seriously” at pardoning people arrested for storming the Capitol, saying they’d been “treated very unfairly.” That November, he wrote on Truth Social, “Let them all go now!”

In May last year, he called Jan. 6 a “beautiful day” and said he would pardon a “large portion” of Jan. 6 defendants (though maybe not “a couple of them” that “got out of control,” he added). Trump said the pardons would happen “very early on,” should he be elected again.

Earlier this month, on the third anniversary of the attack, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia tallied 1,276 Jan. 6defendants who’d been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds; 486 who’d been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees; and more than 350 defendants charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so.

At least 957 defendants had pleaded guilty or been convicted of charges against them as of this month. Of those, 95 pleaded guilty to federal charges of