The People Trump Pardoned Are on a Crime Spree..NYT editorial Board

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/opinion/trump-jan-6-pardons-crimes-recidivism.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XVA.BJ0G.uJkXZMSSg-cy&smid=url-share





The Constitution grants sweeping pardon powers to the president, which means that public opinion has historically been the only check on that power. The risk of a backlash is the reason that presidents have waited until their last days in office to issue many pardons and commutations, especially dubious ones to family members (like Hunter Biden) or political allies (like Caspar W. Weinberger, whom George H.W. Bush pardoned). The potential for a backlash also made presidents cautious about the number of pardons they issued. They understood that there could be an outcry if somebody who received a pardon later committed a new crime. The pardon system has also relied on the decency of American presidents.

President Trump has abandoned this approach. His self-serving pardons are so numerous that public attention cannot keep up with them. It is a version of the strategy that his former adviser Steve Bannon has described as “flood the zone”: Do so much so fast that people cannot follow the consequences.

He has created a veritable pardon industry, in which people with White House connections accept payments from wealthy convicts. Among those on whom he has bestowed freedom are dozens of people convicted of fraud. He has also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras, who helped traffic hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States, and Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for running Silk Road, a sprawling criminal enterprise that sold drugs. There seems to be no crime too ugly for a Trump pardon.

____

The results have been disastrous. At least 12 of the pardoned rioters have since been charged with other serious crimes, including child molestation, assault, harassment, murder plots and charges related to a vicious dog attack. The outcome was predictable. Critics, including this board, had warned that Mr. Trump’s pardons would embolden the rioters by signaling that crime has no consequences. One does not have to be a criminologist to predict that people who commit a violent act and are absolved of any punishment might become repeat offenders.

The American public deserves to understand the mayhem that the Jan. 6 pardons have unleashed. Among the 12 serious recidivists whom we are aware of, four were in jail or prison at the time of the pardon, and they quickly went on to commit more crimes:


Go to link for looooong list of post pardon criminality by people Trump pardoned

[efhmc]

1. "Are on" When did they ever quit?

[tanyev]

2. But the Jan 6ers were just patriotic tourists!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. MaddowBlog-Eyeing a possible payday, Jan. 6 rioters file civil suit, seeking millions in taxpayer money

Ashli Babbitt’s family and Michael Flynn received big checks from the DOJ. Is it any wonder Jan 6. rioters are lining up for a slice of the pie?

Ashli Babbitt’s family filed a baseless lawsuit and received a generous check from Trump's DOJ.

Michael Flynn also filed a baseless lawsuit and also received a generous check from Trump's DOJ.

Is it any wonder why Jan. 6 rioters are lining up for their taxpayer-financed payoff?

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-03-31T14:55:27.903Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/eying-a-possible-payday-jan-6-rioters-file-civil-suit-seeking-millions-in-taxpayer-money

But as some Jan. 6 rioters ended up in court to face criminal charges, others headed to court for a very different reason. Politico reported:

Members of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 are suing the federal government for tens of millions of dollars in damages, claiming that the ‘indiscriminate’ use of force by police officers repelling the attack caused them physical and emotional injuries.

The lawsuit, filed in Florida, takes aim at the conduct of Capitol Police and Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, whose outnumbered officers fended off the mob for hours while members of Congress fled.

This might seem like a twisted joke, but the civil litigation is quite real: A group of Jan. 6 rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol as part of an insurrectionist assault on American democracy. They faced resistance from law enforcement officers who protected the U.S. seat of government. The rioters, unsatisfied with presidential pardons, now want a taxpayer-financed payoff for their troubles.....

It was almost a year ago, for example, that Trump’s Justice Department reached a settlement with the family of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter who was fatally shot by a police officer during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. As part of the agreement, the Republican administration announced plans to pay roughly $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Babbitt’s relatives......

Last week, it happened again. Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn filed an equally outlandish civil suit, claiming wrongful prosecution in a case in which he had already pleaded guilty (twice) to the underlying charges. Trump’s Justice Department agreed to a settlement with him, too, reportedly worth $1.25 million.

With these developments in mind, why wouldn’t Jan. 6 rioters line up for a slice of the pie? The president has already expressed an interest in giving them taxpayer money anyway, and their baseless civil suit offers a convenient vehicle for Trump to use the national treasury to reward some his most radical followers.

I’d put the odds of a generous settlement at around 100%.

Crime pays

[Norrrm]

4. Some of those 'peaceful tourists' are using the defense rationale that the pardon also covers future crimes.

[WmChris]

5. Recruiting

Stafing up his goon squads both iceholes and random terrorists ready to answer calls for retribution. Swatting, doing, arson, upto and including killing percived opponents.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Morning Joe blows a gasket over Jan 6 insurrectionists' lawsuit: 'Those rioters?'

I have not watched Morning Joe and Mika since they made that stupid trip to grovel before trump. It seems that Joe and Mika may have learned their lesson. Groveling before trump did them no good and cost them viewers. Joe's gripes here amuse me.

Morning Joe blows a gasket over Jan 6 insurrectionists' lawsuit: 'Those rioters?'

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-03-31T15:00:47Z

https://www.rawstory.com/jan-6-lawsuit-morning-joe

Reacting to a Politico report that group of Jan. 6 insurrectionists have filed a lawsuit in Florida against the Capitol police officers they assaulted in Donald Trump’s name, “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough went on a furious rant on Tuesday morning that concluded with a long, drawn-out obscenity.

After co-host Mika Brzezinski noted the lawsuit seeks to “represent a class of plaintiffs that includes dozens of others present that day” who stormed the hall of Congress, the outraged Scarborough exploded.

Noting the plaintiffs appear to want to sue the “family of four dead cops,” he exclaimed, “Those rioters are the reason their family members are dead.”

“Are those the same rioters that injured over 140 police officers?” he asked rhetorically. “Are those the same rioters that jammed cops' heads in doors and kept beating them up and almost killed them on the spot? Is that those rioters that are bringing American flags, those rioters?”

“Yeah, those,” Brzezinski replied. “ We're going to dig into that new pretty-craven lawsuit,” as Scarborough let out a long disgusted “S---” as they went to commercial.