Judge rejects DOJ's effort to expand reach of Trump's Jan. 6 pardon
Source: Politico
03/13/2025 11:29 PM EDT
A federal judge has denied the Justice Department’s attempt to apply President Donald Trump’s blanket pardon for members of the Jan. 6 mob at the Capitol to one defendant’s conviction for possessing illegal guns hundreds of miles away, at his Kentucky home. In a ruling Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, became the first judge to reject outright the Justice Department’s recently adopted position about the scope of Trump’s clemency.
Reversing its initial stance in the weeks after Trump’s inauguration, the department is now arguing that Trump’s pardon extends to crimes with no connection to the attack on the Capitol other than the fact that law enforcement agents uncovered evidence of them during the Jan. 6 investigation.
Friedrich said DOJ’s position “contradicts” the “clear and unambiguous” language of Trump’s Day 1 executive order granting pardons to about 1,500 people convicted of participating in the riot. Friedrich noted that Trump’s order said it applied to “individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
The judge found illogical the contention that the order extended to other crimes authorities came across as they conducted that investigation. “To interpret the Presidential Pardon to apply to any type of offense — no matter when or where that offense was committed — simply because evidence of that offense was uncovered incident to a January 6-related search warrant would ‘defy rationality,’” Friedrich wrote, quoting an earlier court precedent.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/13/judge-rejects-trump-pardon-expansion-00230518
Link to RULING (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25560999-wilsonord031325/
Link to RULING (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25560999/wilsonord031325.pdf
Another "buried" story (although I saw the NYT did pick it up this morning). This was a 45 appointee (probably to get an impeachment threat in 3...2...1...).
= new reply since forum marked as read
