Trump likely won't have the power to pardon convicted Jan. 6 rioters: study

Donald Trump has made numerous statements suggesting that he plans to pardon his supporters who've been convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In one interview from 2022, he said he's considering "full pardons with an apology to many" if he's elected president. But a new report suggests that may be wishful thinking.

An analysis from the anti-authoritarianism group Protect Democracy says that even if Trump becomes president, he'll likely lack the power for such pardons since they would seek to grant reprieves for “offenses against the United States," according to The Independent.

Trump used the power of the pardon during the last days of his first term as president when he pardoned former adviser Steve Bannon, his ex-national security adviser, Michael Flynn, his former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, and his longtime associate Roger Stone -- who were all convicted of federal crimes.

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One of the authors of the report, titled, Checking the Pardon Power: Constitutional Limitations & Options for Preventing Abuse, said that fears Trump could set convicted Jan. 6 rioters free doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Grant Tudor told The Independent that there are examples of courts placing restrictions on presidents in regards to their pardon power, one of them being Woodrow Wilson, who was blocked from pardoning New York Tribune editor George Burdick, where the courts ruled that a pardon must be accepted by the intended recipient.

In Trump's case, a pardon for Jan. 6 rioters would produce problems constitutionally since it would be a situation in which “the leader of an insurrection is pardoning fellow insurrectionists."

“We've encountered many situations where presidents have pardoned those who took up arms against the United States ... in all of those instances, the point was to quell unrest, not to sanction it,” Tudor said. “It would be the first time that a president who is himself a criminal defendant, in that same scheme is pardoning those who helped to further it."