Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) released the following statement after President Trump issued an executive order granting pardons to nearly 1,600 people and clemency to 14 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, many of whom were violent offenders who assaulted law enforcement officers and illegally carried firearms or other weapons on Capitol grounds, 14 of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy: 

“President Trump’s blanket pardons for people who violently attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 are an affront to our country, to our Constitution, and to the people who have devoted their lives to protecting and defending our institutions and our ideals.  On his first day in office, President Trump betrayed the police officers who put their lives on the line to protect the peaceful transfer of power—the very thing we witnessed earlier that same day.  These outrageous pardons and commutations are an insult to the rule of law and to law enforcement—including the Capitol Police officers, Metropolitan Police, and others who defended our democracy that day and in the days since—and they make us all less safe. 

“I remain forever grateful to the heroic U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement officers who fought for America and all Americans that day.  We all must fight for them—and for what they fought for—in the days ahead.”

On January 7, 2021, during President Trump’s first term, the U.S. Department of Justice set standards for prosecutions of individuals to be charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol.