Can Trump pardon himself and hundreds of people charged with crimes related to the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol?

CHICAGO (WLS) — What is being billed as America’s largest ever criminal investigation is about to come to a halt before it is completed.

More than 1,500 people already charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot could all be pardoned, and new cases could be dropped as Donald Trump reclaimed the presidency.

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President-elect Trump has promised to rewrite history for those already accused of these crimes, and certainly for many more people still out there.

But Biden’s Justice Department continues to track down, arrest and prosecute people who crashed the Capitol on January 6, and among those targeted is Trump, who may pardon himself along with many others who were there that day were involved.

The FBI continues to release new videos from January 6 as Justice Department officials focus on still-unidentified rioters who attacked law enforcement that day.

Two men from a suburb of Chicago are the latest from Illinois to be charged with crimes and misdemeanors. Federal court documents show they were named in criminal complaints dated to Election Day last week.

But Trump’s election that day could bring a twist of fate that could ensure their fortunes, and a windfall for many of those already convicted or under investigation.

Trump has promised to release the so-called political prisoners of January 6.

“He is allowed to do that because he has the power of the pardon, which is one of the most powerful tools in the Chief Executive’s toolkit assigned to the president by our Constitution,” said Juliette Sorensen, director of the Rule of Law Loyola University. Institute.

Former federal prosecutor and ABC7 chief legal analyst Gil Soffer predicts Trump will follow through.

“First, as far as the protesters, or the violent protesters who have broken the law and have not yet been charged, are concerned, he can obviously order his Justice Department not to bring those charges. If there are cases pending that have not yet been filed He can withdraw the charges. And as for those who have already been convicted, he can pardon them. I don’t know, but he says he will. and there’s a good chance he will,” Soffer said.

Those wearing January 6 jackets include the president-elect himself. Trump will soon have the ability to pardon rioters, police attackers and himself for all crimes related to the riot.

“It is clear that with every legal challenge President-elect Trump has faced, both criminal and civil, his defiance and his characterization of those legal challenges have fueled his support. His fundraising is improving in the wake of criminal charges. He characterizes the legal efforts against him. In my opinion, he is therefore undermining the rule of law and equality before the law. But that does not seem to be the case for many of his supporters,” Sorensen said.

Although Trump has called riot detainees “J-6 patriots,” he has said that if a case involved someone who was “evil and evil,” to use his words, he would look at it differently.

It remains to be seen whether these will include the 18 people charged with seditious conspiracy, or whether those who hit police with brass knuckles, anti-bear spray, flag poles or in a few cases carry knives, axes, swords or guns.