See our fact sheet on this topic for reporters here.
On January 20, 2025, newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump issued a series of sweeping executive orders that included disinformation about transgender people and demanding federal agencies begin to roll back measures to support diversity, equity, and inclusion across the federal government. In the chaos that followed these orders, many of which portend to “protect” and “restore” safety and excellence, the Trump administration announced pardons and clemency of those convicted in the deadly US Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Trump’s executive order granted clemency to over 1,500 individuals charged federally for disrupting the peaceful transition of power. Hundreds of these same defendants had already been found guilty and were serving jail time for their role in the injury of approximately 140 law enforcement officers and the damage of more than $2.9 million in Capitol property.
In addition to the blanket pardons, Trump also granted commutations to the sentences of 14 named persons – nine of which were members of the extremist group Oath Keepers and five of which were members of the white supremacist group Proud Boys. The groups have connections to anti-LGBTQ incidents nationwide, according to GLAAD’s ALERT Desk data. Donald Trump has a long history of supporting domestic extremists, including telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during the November 2020 presidential debate.
Axios reports Trump “vacillated” between targeted clemency and blanket release. Vice President JD Vance told CBS that convicts who assaulted police officers should not receive a pardon. Axios says Trump grew impatient with the deliberations and said “F it, release them all.” NBC News reports that some insurrectionists granted clemency by Trump have since been re-arrested, investigated for child pornography and preying on children, and one even resisted arrest at a traffic stop before being shot by police.
The Rise of Far-Right + Anti-LGBTQ Domestic Extremism
Since June 1, 2022, GLAAD’s ALERT Desk has tracked over 2,200 anti-LGBTQ incidents nationwide, including more than 610+ protests, 360+ propaganda drops, 350+ acts of vandalism, 200+ bomb & mass shooting threats, 180+ assaults, and 45+ cases of arson. Tragically, these incidents have resulted in at least 208 injuries and 31 deaths.
Far-right extremists carried out hundreds of these attacks, with over 200 incidents tied to the Goyim Defense League and dozens more tied to white supremacist groups like Patriot Front, White Lives Matter, Blood Tribe, and the Active Club network. The Proud Boys alone have been responsible for nearly 70 anti-LGBTQ incidents, including 50+ protests and violent altercations mainly targeting drag shows and local school board meetings.
As news of the pardons broke, domestic extremism experts warn that defendants and the groups they represent are likely to seek revenge.
Teddy Wilson from Radical Reports writes: “There have also been several Capitol rioters… that have promised retribution against anyone involved in the investigations and prosecutions of those that participated in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.” Those associated with the Proud Boys, in particular, are “engaged in violent rhetoric and revenge fantasies against former members that accepted plea deals and provided testimony against other Proud Boys.”
Rachel Carroll Rivas, Interim Director of the Intelligence Project at SPLC, told GLAAD: “The pardons and commutations were such a dangerous signal to the hard right that they can get away with violence and justify their bigoted and anti-democracy ideas. I’m particularly concerned about the leaders of groups like Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who conspired to carry out the events and who were well known entities that we warned about before and still. It will be tough for Oath Keepers to rebuild anything like [Stewart] Rhodes had before, and that kind of infrastructure is powerful- but so are the ideas he was spreading and those are now elevated to legitimacy. Same for [Enrique] Tarrio, he will need to overcome infighting and division in the Proud Boys ranks, but the role they played in the rise of male supremacy is being felt everyday.”
Subverting Democratic Processes
Beyond the obvious dangers posed by letting violent extremists back into our communities, Trump’s pardon of the Jan 6th defendants is a blatant attempt to subvert democratic processes and thwart justice. With over 1,000 of these defendants having already pled guilty to their role in the attack, the pardons excuse and defend political violence by far-right extremists.
More executive orders barreling down the pipeline work to further Trump’s attempts to disrupt the US justice system. In one new order, “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) is now mandated to fire any official who helped prosecute the criminal cases against Donald Trump. Still other orders involve launching investigations into perceived “political opponents” within federal agencies.
The DOJ has also taken down their publicly accessible database which tracked the prosecution of those involved in the Jan 6th attack. The good news is, extremism researchers continue to preserve and update this same data. The Prosecution Project, for example, maintains a full dataset of all Jan 6th defendants charged both at the federal and state-level.
Despite the attempts by the Trump administration to erase the memory of Jan 6th, the US won’t forget so easily. The pardons remain wildly unpopular among the American people, with AP reporting that only 2 in 10 US adults are in favor and more than half oppose.
“When it comes to hard right activity to gain power through intimidation, manipulation and force, it comes down to one simple thing – democracy doesn’t happen at the barrel of a gun and to me, it doesn’t look like January 6th 2021,” said SPLC’s Rachel Carroll Rivas.
For more on GLAAD’s work in combating extremism targeting LGBTQ people, visit the ALERT Desk here.