January 6th Pardons: the Principles & the Polling

What makes sense for justice, and for politics?

For four years now, the Ruling Class has consistently exploited the unfortunate but minor misdeeds of January 6^th for partisan purposes.

First, the administrative state leveraged that day as a pretext to try to put President Trump in prison. Of course, President Trump was crystal clear in his exhortation to the protestors that day. He directed them: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to PEACEFULLY and PATRIOTICALLY make your voices heard.”

Nonetheless, his political opponents used January 6^th as an excuse for second sham impeachment of President Trump, and then for an equally inane criminal case in the corrupt DC court system, which has since been dropped.

In addition, regular Americans were also unjustly targeted. In a sweeping dragnet, politicized, zealous prosecutors used novel and highly technical charges for unremarkable January 6^th transgressions. These inquests ruined the lives of thousands of patriotic Americans.

What were the real offense committed by those ordinary Americans?

Well, they had serious problems with the corrupt conduct of the 2020 presidential election, and they were willing to get a bit impolite in Washington DC to let the powerbrokers know, firsthand.

In response, permanent Washington clapped back viciously, with the full investigative and prosecutorial power of the federal government deployed against protestors, most of whom did little more than saunter placidly through the halls of the Congress, a building that we collectively own and operate.

Of course, the twisting of reality about January 6^th has only been made possible because of a constant cooperation of the legacy media in pushing the propaganda program. For instance, mainstream media outlets have lied so consistently about “cops dying” on January 6^th, that many Americans tragically believe that myth. In fact, the only person killed that day was Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed pro-Trump protestor who was shot dead by Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd, for trespassing.

The corporate media also consistently pushes the lie that federal law enforcement was uninvolved in the events of that day. According to official narrative, those agencies were simply caught flatfooted as an organic riot erupted from a small group of protestors. In reality, the Department of Justice now admits that there were at least 26 FBI informants active in the crowd that day. The FBI now officially admits that 17 of those informants engaged in crimes on January 6^th.

How many of those informants riled up an already agitated crowd? How many assets encouraged fellow protesters to commit crimes as well? How much communication did these government plants have, on that day, with federal law enforcement?

We do not know the answers to those key questions, but the just the known facts are damning enough to warrant a lot more skepticism about the official version of events on January 6^th.

Given this backdrop, President Trump seems poised to pardon most, if not all, of the January 6^th defendants once he is sworn-in for a second term on January 20^th. Such mass pardons would restore some semblance of justice to the many abused patriots caught up in this frenzy.

But what about the politics of such a move?

Well, my polling on the issue shows that it is right down the middle. Such pardons would neither be a big political success, nor a big political stumble. In a national post-election poll of 1,550 voters countrywide, Americans split 45-45% on whether or not non-violent January 6^th defendants should be pardoned, with 10% unsure. This poll queried a sample universe that split exactly evenly between Trump and Harris voters on November 5^th.

So, President Trump should feel free from serious political pressure. The “partisan winds” blow in both directions on this issue, and he should simply pursue justice, and pardon these defendants.

Steve Cortes is former senior advisor to President Trump and JD Vance, former commentator for Fox News and CNN, and president of the League of American Workers, a populist right pro-laborer advocacy group.