The Japan Times - Trump signs pardons for 1,500 Capitol rioters

"These are the hostages -- approximately 1,500 people -- for a pardon, full pardon," Trump said at a signing ceremony shortly after arriving at the White House.

"We hope they come out tonight frankly," he said. "They're expecting it."

More than 1,500 people were charged in connection with the assault on Congress by Trump supporters who were seeking to disrupt certification of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.

Trump repeatedly pledged during his election campaign to pardon those who took part in the attack, calling them "hostages," "patriots" and "political prisoners."

Trump, whose first term as president ended under the cloud of the Capitol assault, has repeatedly played down the unprecedented violence of January 6, even going so far as to describe it as a "day of love."

More than 140 police officers were injured in hours of clashes with rioters wielding flagpoles, baseball bats, hockey sticks and other makeshift weapons along with Tasers and canisters of bear spray.

The assault on the Capitol followed a fiery speech by then-president Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 race. He then encouraged the crowd to march on Congress.

Trump was charged by special counsel Jack Smith with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

But the case never made it to trial, and was dropped under the Justice Department's policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.

According to the latest figures from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, 1,583 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol siege, including 608 accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers.

Biden, before leaving office on Monday, issued preemptive pardons to former Covid pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci, retired general Mark Milley and close family members to shield them from "politically motivated prosecutions" by the Trump administration.

Biden gave similar pardons to former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney and other members of the congressional committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Just minutes before Trump was sworn in, Biden announced he was issuing pardons to his brother James Biden, James's wife Sara Jones Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, Valerie's husband John Owens, and his brother Francis Biden.

"My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me -- the worst kind of partisan politics," Biden said. "Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end."

T.Ueda--JT