January 6th Insurrectionists
This is not surprising…
By: Austin Abbring
September 7, 2026
This will not come as a shock to anybody, but nearly 100 individuals granted clemency by Donald Trump for their actions on January 6th have gone on to reoffend. As of June 2026, 97 participants from the coup attempt have been accused of or convicted of crimes since their full pardon. These crimes range from sexual assault, theft, burglary, child pornography possession, homicide, and DUI’s. Upon taking office in January of last year, Donald Trump issued pardons covering just about every single participant from his “peaceful gathering,” which attacked our Capitol and attempted to overthrow our democracy. This all equates to nearly 1 in every 17 insurrectionists having gone on to reoffend since those blanket pardons.
Again, it should come as no surprise that individuals with violent tendencies will remain violent without proper rehabilitation. This is why protecting political allies in this manner is so obviously dangerous. This is why inflammatory rhetoric is so corrosive towards public trust in our government and institutions. When you have a sitting U.S. president making incessant claims of rigged and stolen elections months prior to actual elections, there will be clear consequences. You don’t need me to tell you how existential all of this is, or how easily certain members of our electorate can be swayed.
My hope is that we can slowly return to some resemblance of normalcy in 2028 and improve from there, assuming we have a Democratic administration that is far enough left and that Democrats clean house beginning in these midterms. The Democratic Party, should they win the presidency in the next presidential cycle, must begin rebuilding that trust starting with coherent, organized messaging. We cannot maintain a functioning democracy when nearly a third of the electorate believes elections are always rigged by a certain political party and that there is rampant voter fraud in every election. Candidates and lawmakers who perpetuate election lies without legitimate proof need to face serious, real legal consequences. We are at the point now that more January Sixers have gone on to criminally reoffend since being issued pardons than the total number of cases of noncitizens committing election fraud (89) since the year 2000. The real dangers are clear. It is not individuals voting or committing sweeping election interference practices (which is not actually occurring); it is candidates and lawmakers, primarily Republican ones, especially in the Trump era, who are enabling violent individuals to become far more radicalized with their fraudulent and reactive discourse and then turning around and rewarding those people. It is what fascists do.
Comments