Ashley Murray, South Dakota Searchlight

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.

Republicans quiet about Jan. 6 pardons

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.

Violent offenders

Murray, Schumer, Murphy and Kim highlighted several specific cases of violent offenders pardoned by Trump. Here are a few:

• Christopher Quaglin, of North Brunswick, New Jersey, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for spraying bear spray directly in the faces of officers, stealing riot shields and striking the officers, grabbing an officer’s neck and tackling him to the ground, and numerous other assaults on law enforcement that day.
• Tyler Bradley Dykes, of Bluffton, South Carolina, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for stealing a police riot shield and using it to obstruct and assault officers at multiple locations in the Capitol.
• Robert Sanford Jr., of Chester, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to just over four years in prison for hitting three officers in the head with a fire extinguisher, among other actions.
• Robert Scott Palmer, of Largo, Florida, was sentenced to just over five years in prison for throwing a wooden plank at officers and spraying the entire contents of a fire extinguisher at them before throwing it in an attempt to strike them.

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.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service has taken responsibility for the failures that resulted in the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and is asking for more resources going forward, a top official said Friday.

Acting Director Ronald Rowe briefed reporters on the agency’s findings following an investigation into how a gunman was able to scale a nearby roof and fire multiple shots at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler. Trump sustained an injury to his right ear, and one spectator was killed while two others were seriously injured.

“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” Rowe said.

The investigation revealed communication “deficiencies” between law enforcement personnel and an “overreliance on mobile devices, resulting in information being siloed,” Rowe said, highlighting that vital information about the shooter was transmitted via phone instead of over the Secret Service radio network.

The investigation also uncovered “complacency” among some staff members who visited the site ahead of time but did not escalate to supervisors their concerns over “line of sight issues,” Rowe said.

“The findings of the Mission Assurance review have prompted the Secret Service to move into the accountability phase of this process,” he said, referring to the agency’s title of its investigation.

“What has become clear to me is we need a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our protective operations. As was demonstrated on Sunday in West Palm Beach, the threat level is evolving,” Rowe said.

“This increased operational tempo requires additional resources to not only account for costs being incurred today, but ensure that we have the tools, technology and personnel needed to meet these new requirements and execute our mission going forward,” he said.

Second attempt to harm Trump

The investigation’s conclusions were revealed less than a week after a second attempt on Trump’s life. On Sunday the Secret Service thwarted a gunman’s attempt to aim a high-powered rifle at the former president while he was playing golf on his West Palm Beach, Florida, property.

The incidents prompted unanimous U.S. House support for a measure to grant presidential and vice presidential candidates the same security level as the officeholders. The proposal sailed through the lower chamber Friday in a 405-0 vote.

On Monday a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the July attempted assassination in Pennsylvania announced an expansion of its purview to also probe Sunday’s attempt in Florida. The task force will hold its first hearing Thursday.

Rowe said the agency has been providing the “highest levels” of protections for presidential candidates since the July 13 assassination attempt.

That increased level of protection is working, Rowe told reporters, recounting how an agent swept the area ahead of Trump and “took steps to neutralize that threat.”

“No shot was fired at the former president. The former president was not exposed to where he was on the golf course,” he said.

Extending that level of protection means the agency is “burning through a lot of assets and resources.”

“This isn’t pie in the sky, trying to say ‘Hey, we want this now.’ We are not capitalizing on a crisis,” Rowe said.

Rowe would not disclose an additional dollar amount the agency is seeking and said conversations with congressional appropriators are “ongoing.”

“The threat is not going to evaporate anytime soon, and so we have to be prepared for this. And that is the argument that we have been making. We have certainly made some inroads, and we’re having these productive conversations with the Hill,” he said.

Rowe was appointed as the agency’s acting director after former Director Kimberly Cheatle heeded loud cries for her resignation, stepping down 10 days after the attempt on Trump’s life in July.

Rowe would not detail who or how many in the agency will face discipline, citing federal regulations preventing him from discussing it further.

“What I will tell you is that I have not asked for anybody to retire. I know some of that was reported. That is false,” Rowe said. Rowe said the agency’s offices of Integrity and Professional Responsibility will together decide any discipline in accordance with the agency’s “table of penalties.”

South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com. Follow South Dakota Searchlight on Facebook and X.