Four years after Jan. 6 attack, defendants believe they'll be pardoned within days

For the past two years, a committed group has been on a corner outside the D.C. jail every night, protesting those locked up after Jan. 6, 2021.

They say these are their vigil’s final days. They insist President-elect Donald Trump, the man who brought them to D.C. on Jan. 6 four years ago, will keep his promise to pardon those who have come to be known as J6ers.

More than 1,100 defendants have been sentenced, and Jan. 6 investigations are ongoing. More than 200 people have been identified but not yet arrested for alleged crimes that day, NBC News reports.

The News4 I-Team spoke with three men convicted of J6 crimes, plus their supporters. Each believe some of those charged or convicted in a J6 case will see pardons just days from now. Trump has referred to J6 inmates as hostages and Jan. 6, 2021, as a "day of love."

In an op-ed published in Monday’s Washington Post, President Joe Biden warned, “An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite – even erase – the history of that day. To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand.”

Former Capitol Police officer and assault victim Aquilino Gonell told NBC News, “Instead of praising the rioters who fought us, the officers, [Trump] should remember the police that died fighting his minions because of his actions inactions in his attempt to remain in power by force.”

Whether J6ers deserve pardons is a tough question to answer for many people with a connection to the Capitol attack – even for some of the Capitol’s most ardent defenders that day.

“I think on Day 1, January 20th, when President Trump gets into office, he's going to address the situation regarding January 6th immediately,” Gregory Purdy, who was convicted of Jan. 6 crimes, said on speakerphone to the I-Team from inside the D.C. jail.

Purdy and Robert Turner, who also spoke with the I-Team, were convicted in June by a D.C. jury of 21 crimes committed on Jan. 6. The most serious was assaulting police officers.

Video entered as evidence in court shows Purdy and Turner at the Capitol that day. Purdy called himself a “leader in peaceful pushes” against police barricades. Prosecutors did not call his actions peaceful, and a jury convicted him on two counts of assaulting an officer.

“Nobody had a fair trial,” Purdy argued.

Rep. Jamie Raskin and former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund weigh in

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin was at the Capitol that day too and served on the Jan. 6 committee.

“I haven't seen that there was any miscarriage of justice or any breach of due process. On the contrary, these people got every right afforded to people in our system,” he told the I-Team.

Raskin said he opposes mass pardons.

“A mass pardon without any explanation sends the message that if you participate in an insurrection incited by Donald Trump, you will be pardoned for it if Donald Trump has the opportunity to pardon you,” he said.

The question of whether to pardon, or who to pardon, is not so cut and dry – even for the man in charge of security at the Capitol that day, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.

“I think about that day every day,” he said, calling what he saw on Jan. 6 “some of the most brutal attacks on law enforcement I’ve seen.”

“I think if he goes in and does a blanket pardon, I think that's that raises a lot of concerns about people that are really involved in violence,” Sund said.

Neither Raskin nor Sund told the I-Team they think all of the nearly 1,600 J6 defendants deserve clemency from the president.

“There are people who are in there for nonviolent offenses. They trespass, they disobey the lawful order. Maybe they destroy property. That's different from people who violently assaulted officers. So, I think there are distinctions that can be drawn, but we need to talk about it at that level of specificity,” Raskin said.

‘I think a pardon is a wonderful idea’

Attorney Heather Shaner knows more than most about J6 cases. She said she’s represented 43 defendants so far.

“I don't think you can pardon people who tried to destroy America. I mean, there's a difference between people who walked peacefully, more or less in and around the Capitol, and people who violently attacked the police,” she said.

The longtime D.C. resident said she has turned down any case that involved violence.

“My function as an attorney was not to convert them politically; my function was to make them understand,” she said.

From her home office in Dupont Circle, Shaner sent her jailed clients copies of the Constitution, “The Federalist Papers” and videos of her clients inside the Capitol, trying to ensure they understood the gravity of that day.

All 43 of her J6 clients pleaded guilty. Shaner said none have asked for a pardon or even a delay until Trump takes office.

“I think a pardon is a wonderful idea,” she said. “Not for people who knowingly and intentionally tried to destroy our democracy, because I think the standard for a pardon there should be a little higher. But for schmucks who walked in and took pictures next to photographs of presidents and the statues in Statuary Hall and then walked out, I think it's fine if they get a pardon.”

Which brings the I-Team back to that frigid corner outside the D.C. jail.

“I didn’t break anything. I didn’t hurt anybody,” said Dominic Box. He has been in the jail for a year-and-a-half for nonviolent crimes on Jan. 6: civil disorder and disorderly conduct.

Box repeatedly entered the Capitol that day. He doesn’t deny it and there are plenty of photos in his indictment to prove it.

Box said he expects to be pardoned.

“I take President Donald J. Trump at his word,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen on day one and if it’s not soon, I know it will come eventually.”

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, shot by Jerry Lawlor and Jeff Piper, and edited by Jeff Piper