WASHINGTON — Democratic and independent U.S. senators introduced a resolution Monday to condemn President Donald Trump’s clemency for the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, injuring numerous law enforcement officers and sending lawmakers into hiding as they tried to certify the 2020 presidential election results.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York along with Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Andy Kim of New Jersey are leading all Democrat and independent senators who signed the resolution that “disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police officers.”
An initial press release did not include Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania as a co-sponsor, but reports on social media indicated he signed on. Fetterman’s office did not immediately confirm.
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Murray will seek unanimous consent on the floor to pass the resolution. Only one senator needs to object to stop it from being adopted.
Murray said in a statement Monday that she refuses to “allow President Trump to rewrite what happened on January 6th— armed insurrectionists, incited by Trump himself, broke into the U.S. Capitol and violently assaulted Capitol Police officers in their attempt to overthrow a free and fair election.”
Condemning the pardons and commutations for those who caused cracked ribs, crushed spinal disks and other injuries, “should be the easiest thing in the world,” Murray said.
“I hope and expect my Republican colleagues will allow this very simple resolution to pass as a show of support for the officers who put their lives on the line to keep senators safe,” Murray said.
States Newsroom asked 22 Republican senators how they felt about the pardons and commutations the day after Trump signed the order. Barring a few exceptions, most either refused to answer, said they hadn’t seen Trump’s high-profile order, or spoke only on pardons issued by former President Joe Biden in the hours before he left office.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” on Sunday that the president’s pardons of violent Jan. 6 defendants were “a mistake because it seems to suggest that’s an OK thing to do.”
Trump commuted the prison sentences of 14 of the attack’s ringleaders and members of the paramilitary groups the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. The president granted a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to all others charged with crimes after the attack.
Among the approximately 1,572 defendants, 608 were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement, including 174 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Of those charged, 172 pleaded guilty to assaulting police — 69 of them pleading guilty to assaulting the officers with some sort of weapon.
Investigators found that the rioters brought and improvised numerous types of weapons, including firearms, chemical sprays, tasers, knives, flagpoles and broken furniture.
Murray, Schumer, Murphy and Kim highlighted several specific cases of violent offenders pardoned by Trump. Here are a few:
Prior to leaving office Jan. 20, Biden preemptively pardoned all members of the congressional committee that investigated the attack as well as four police officers who testified before the panel. Trump is on record as recently as December saying the committee members “should go to jail.”