(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge in Washington refused to let President-elect Donald Trump’s broad promise of pardons for people who stormed the US Capitol almost four years ago keep him from sending one of them to prison.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth took the unusual step on Friday of sending a non-violent offender directly to prison for his role in the riots on Jan. 6, 2021, instead of allowing him to self-surrender later. Defendant Philip Grillo had signaled to the court that he expects clemency from Trump, but Lamberth said such speculation had no bearing on his work.
“Trump’s going to pardon me,” Grillo said as he prepared to be escorted out by court security officers.
Despite frequent campaign promises, Trump hasn’t shared details about how he’ll handle the Jan. 6 pardons once he takes office. But he brought it up again earlier this week, referring to the Capitol riot defendants as “hostages” in an online post criticizing President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter.
The lack of clarity on whether Trump will grant full amnesty or leave out people convicted of assaulting police and other violent crimes is sparking disagreement among his supporters. In the meantime, judges are taking different approaches to requests for delays.
In a lengthy address on Friday, Lamberth laid out his view.
“The bedrock assumption of our judicial system is that truth and justice, law and order, are values of paramount importance, and are worth protecting even at great expense,” Lamberth said. Friday’s hearing and proceedings in other Jan. 6 cases showed “that our system of justice is always working, no matter the political winds of the day.”
Grillo was sentenced Friday to 12 months in prison for trespassing and disorderly conduct for his role in the Capitol riot. He was initially contrite during the hearing, telling Lamberth he was “mortified” by his actions on Jan. 6 before striking a more defiant tone.
Grillo’s attorneys weren’t immediately available for comment. A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team didn’t respond to a request for comment about his clemency plans.
More than 1,500 people have been charged with crimes connected to Jan. 6 and of that group, more than 1,000 have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial. Federal prosecutors have continued to bring new cases since Trump’s November win.
‘Particular Affront’
Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, didn’t explicitly say that he decided to immediately incarcerate Grillo because of the possibility of a Trump pardon. But before announcing the sentence, he spoke about the severity of the Jan. 6 attack and why even nonviolent participants in the mob should face punishment. He said he was placing Grillo in custody because of where the case was “in the process.”
The judge said he wasn’t offering an opinion on Trump’s pardon promises, saying that the president was free to exercise his constitutional authority. But he said that speculation about what the executive branch might do shouldn’t stop the judiciary from fulfilling its duties.
Lamberth isn’t the only judge to address the pardon issue. At another recent hearing, US District Judge Carl Nichols said that “blanket pardons” would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing.” But, he added, “that’s not my call.” In that case, Nichols granted a defense request to postpone a trial, citing the potential clemency, among other reasons.
Marina Medvin, a lawyer for multiple Jan. 6 defendants, said she hadn’t received any communication from Trump or his advisers about how they intend to handle clemency. She said there were a range of options for Trump to consider, such as pardons for certain types of offenses and a mix of pardons and sentence commutations.
“Considering the high volume of cases, I think it’s unlikely that the Trump team will go case-by-case,” Medvin said.
Selective Pardons
Some Trump supporters have said they’ll be disappointed by anything short of full amnesty.
Couy Griffin, a founder of Cowboys for Trump who was convicted of a misdemeanor trespassing charge, told Bloomberg News in a text that he planned to “refuse a pardon unless all are pardoned.”
“It really irks me the thought of being selective in pardons whenever there has been such abuse in over charging defendants,” wrote Griffin, who is appealing his conviction.
Earlier this week, Republican Senator Ted Cruz posted online that he expected “peaceful protesters who were persecuted by the Biden DOJ will be pardoned.” Cruz faced critical replies from other conservatives and supporters of Jan. 6 defendants who called for full pardons. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck encountered similar pushback when he advocated for a “case-by-case” review.
Former federal prosecutor Alexis Loeb, who worked on Jan. 6 cases before moving to a private law firm, said that a mass pardon that covered people who assaulted law enforcement officers “would be a particular affront.” But she also pushed back at the idea that pardoning misdemeanor offenders was “no big deal.”
“The evidence showed that individuals would have had to ignore numerous red flags and understood very well what they were doing, which was breaking into the United States Capitol,” Loeb said. “Often the government presented detailed evidence of their intent to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.”
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