'No help is coming': Capitol rioters scoff at Trump's promise of pardons
According to a report from CNN, Donald Trump's dangling of an offer to pardon his supporters who rioted at the U.S, Capitol on Jan 6th is being blown off by those who have already been indicted and are awaiting trial.
As the more serious cases head to trial, and a week after the former president told attendees at a Texas rally that he would pardon Capitol insurrectionists should he be re-elected, CNN's Katelyn Polantz reported that Trump's outreach is falling flat with those looking at jail time.
After "New Day" host Boris Sanchez shared clips of an insurrectionist swearing and saying they were going to drag lawmakers through the streets on Jan 6th, the CNN host prompted, "Katelyn, these videos are obviously troubling, but they paint a clear picture that these weren't tourists visiting the capitol. Despite these videos, the former president is still dangling pardons as he heads for another presidential run."
"That's right, Boris, " Polantz began. "Donald Trump has been talking about giving pardons to January 6th rioters. but even in this situation, what Donald Trump is selling, the January 6th defendants are not buying it.
"I made lots of phone calls this week to lawyers representing those January 6 defendants, including people in jail, people not in jail, people have pled guilty and, overall, they were telling us that they believe that what Trump is talking about, about pardons is largely theatrics," she continued.
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"There are a couple reasons for that," elaborated. "One, he's not president right now so he can't actually give pardons because he's not the president. When he was the president for 14 days after the insurrection, there were rioters who were asking for pardons publically, and Trump did not give them at that time -- so that was gone. And the third reason is that a lot of these court cases for these January 6th defendants, they're moving slowly, but they're moving fast forward that they will be wrapped well before the next presidential election, so there just really isn't a way for these people to be relying on Trump's help."
"At this time, one criminal defense attorney for several January 6 rioters told us no help is coming when we asked him about Trump's statements this week about pardons," she continued. "That said, there is still this Capitol Hill investigation that is ongoing. There are people who the House wants to talk to, witnesses that if they do not comply with subpoenas, one possible consequence of that is being held in criminal contempt, being prosecuted by the Justice Department."
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