Jan 6 Defendants Are Already Banking On Trump’s Promise Of A Pardon

Several Jan. 6 defendants have already asked judges to delay or pause their cases in light of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign-trail promise of a pardon.

Defendant Christopher Carnell’s attorneys were among the first to motion Wednesday to delay a hearing in his case following Trump’s victory, though a judge denied the request.

“Throughout his campaign, President-elect Trump made multiple clemency promises to the January 6 defendants, particularly to those who were nonviolent participants,” Carnell’s attorneys wrote in the filing. “Mr. Carnell, who was an 18 year old nonviolent entrant into the Capitol on January 6, is expecting to be relieved of the criminal prosecution that he is currently facing when the new administration takes office.”

His attorneys wrote Carnell is “now awaiting further information from the Office of the President-elect regarding the timing and expected scope of clemency actions relevant to his case.”

“President Trump will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis,” Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Over 1,500 defendants have been charged for conduct on Jan. 6 as of October, according to the Department of Justice. Just over 1,000 have already received sentences, including 645 who have been sentenced to jail time and 143 to home detention.

Another defendant, Anna Lichnowski, requested Thursday a delay in her sentencing date in order to “seek a Presidential pardon.”

Defendants Jaimee Avery and Nicholas Fuller asked Wednesday to pause their respective sentencing hearings, but both requests were also denied.

Avery’s attorneys wrote it would be a “gross disparity for Ms. Avery to spend even a day in jail when the man who played a pivotal role in organizing and instigating the events of January 6 will now never face consequences for his role in it.”

Defendant Mitchell Bosch’s attorneys requested a trial delay, writing he cannot receive a fair trial in Washington, D.C. next week “due to the heightened public emotion and highly publicized media attention surrounding yesterday’s presidential election.” The judge denied Bosch’s request.

“If jurors believe that the President-elect is a threat to democracy, that he does not take the events of January 6, 2021 seriously, and that he will pardon those involved that day, there is a real and significant possibility that, in their aversion to those views, they will punish Mr. Bosch or use this case to send a message that they disagree with the President-elect,” his attorneys wrote.

Trump promised to pardon defendants multiple times throughout his campaign.

“I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control,” he said during a May 2023 CNN Town Hall.

During a July panel at the National Association of Black Journalists, he said he would “absolutely” pardon those who are innocent. “They were convicted by a very tough system,” he said.