How some Jan. 6 defendants are reacting to Trump’s pardons

(WASHINGTON) — Protesters endured freezing temperatures to attend a vigil outside the Washington, D.C., jail this week as the moment they waited years for arrived: alleged Jan. 6 rioters walking free after President Donald Trump issued sweeping pardons on his first day back in office on Monday.

Those demonstrators gathered each night in support of the incarcerated Jan. 6 defendants, talking on speakerphone and joining in song with people jailed just steps away.

On Jan. 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol was attacked by a mob of Trump supporters two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. At the time, a joint session of Congress was counting the Electoral College votes to formalize Joe Biden’s victory. Trump pardoned around 1,500 people charged or convicted in crimes tied to the day’s events.

One of those pardoned was Pennsylvania resident Robert Morss, who was convicted of assaulting police officers on Jan. 6. Morss drove to the D.C. vigil after he was officially released early from his halfway house.

He was pressed by ABC News about whether there was any justification for hurting a police officer.

“I would say that the justification for defending yourself would have to be predicated on the threat level,” he said. “I would never say that there’s any justification for hurting a cop, I would never say there’s any justification for hurting anybody and we’re not the party that condones violence.”

Multiple accused rioters have put forward defenses that they were incited to violence by police, but none were successful in court. Approximately 140 police officers were injured that day, according to the Department of Justice.

The Washington, D.C., Police Union, which represents officers from the Metropolitan Police Department, expressed “dismay” over the pardons in a statement.

“As an organization that represents the interests of the 3,000 brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities, our stance is clear — anyone who assaults a law enforcement officer should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, without exception,” it said.

In an internal memo obtained by ABC News, Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger praised officers in the wake of the pardons. Manger said that “when there is no price to pay for violence against law enforcement, it sends a message that politics matter more than our first responders.”

In addition to mentioning Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, he also cited former President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975.

“Police willingly put themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities. When people attack law enforcement officers, the criminals should be met with consequences, condemnation and accountability,” Manger said in the memo.

While most Jan. 6 rioters were charged with nonviolent offenses, more than 250 were convicted of violent crimes, including assaulting police officers, according to an ABC News review of court records.

In the aftermath of the attack, both Republicans and Democrats condemned people responsible.

“The thugs who stormed the Capitol today and incited violence should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Every single one of them,” Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, wrote on X on Jan. 6, 2021.

However, after the pardons, Republican lawmakers largely defended Trump’s pardon powers and Scott sidestepped ABC News’ questions about whether the pardons should have applied to violent offenders.

“I haven’t gone into the detail,” he said.

Not every Jan. 6 defendant received a pardon — 14 had their sentences commuted instead.

All were members of militant groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers who were charged with sedition. Prosecutors said they tried to use the Capitol attack to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was released early from his 18-year prison sentence. He did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6 and maintained that his group only intended to provide security and medical aid to those attending multiple pro-Trump demonstrations in the area, prosecutors said.

After his release, he came back to Washington, D.C., and told ABC News that people who committed acts of violence deserve a pardon and claimed that none of the Jan. 6 defendants received fair trials.

“They still have a right to a fair trial,” he said. “And if the jury pool is drawn up of the victims, the judges themselves said that all people who live in D.C. were victims of Jan. 6.”

Heather Shaner, a public defender who represented more than 40 nonviolent Jan. 6 defendants, had a different take.

“As an attorney, I think they have been handled with excruciating fairness. And my clients feel the same way, by the way,” she told ABC News. “They got a public defender. They were given all the evidence against them. And they got what they considered fair pleas and fair sentences.”

Jason Riddle, who was sentenced to 90 days in prison after pleading guilty to illegally protesting in the Capitol and raiding a liquor cabinet, echoed that sentiment. He wants nothing to do with a Trump pardon, even though he got one.

“Because I did it, I’m guilty of the crime,” he told ABC News.

The New Hampshire man called Jan. 6 “the biggest display of disrespect you ever saw in your life,” acknowledging that he raided a liquor cabinet and noting that people were defacing the walls of the Capitol.

“And like, Trump called that a ‘beautiful day.’ Trump said that was ‘a day of love,'” he told ABC News.

ABC News’ Alex Mallin and Diana Paulson contributed to this report.