President Donald Trump acknowledged that it’s ‘never acceptable to assault a police officer,’ but he justified pardoning a January 6 convict who used a taser on an officer.
On Monday, January 20, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States.
Within a day, he pardoned approximately 1,500 individuals convicted for their roles in the Capitol Riots, which included violent assaults on police officers defending the Capitol building in Washington. The events of January 6 resulted in over 140 police officers being injured and at least seven people losing their lives.
Daniel Joseph ‘DJ’ Rodriguez assaulted officer Michael Fanone with a stun gun to his neck. Rodriguez pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, tampering with documents or proceedings, and inflicting bodily injury on officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon, as reported by NBC News.
He received a 12-year prison sentence.
During a White House press briefing, a reporter asked Trump, “You would agree it’s never acceptable to assault a police officer?”
In a clip shared by Forbes, the president replied, “Sure.”
The journalist further questioned, “So then if I can, among those you pardon, DJ Rodriguez he drove a stun gun into the neck of a DC police officer who was abducted by the mob that day.
“He later confessed on video to the FBI and pleaded guilty for his crimes – why does he deserve a pardon?”
Trump initially responded, “Well, I don’t know.”
He continued, “Is it a pardon? Because we’re looking at commutes and we’re looking at pardons. Okay well, we’ll take a look at everything but I can say this, murderers today are not even charged, you have murderers that aren’t charged all over.”
Trump elaborated on his point.
Referring to cities like Philadelphia and Los Angeles, Trump remarked that ‘people murder people and they don’t get charged,’ contending that those he pardoned ‘have already served yers in prison and uh, they’ve served them viciously, it’s a disgusting prison, it’s been horrible, it’s inhumane, it’s been a terrible thing’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-pauA3pLRU
He added, “I also say this, you go to Portland where they wrapped police officers, shot police officers, nothing happened to anybody. You go to Seattle where they took over a big chunk of the city and people died, Portland a lot of people died […] and you also go take a look at Minneapolis because I was there and I watched it and if I didn’t bring in the National Guard that city wouldn’t even exist today, people were killed and nobody went to jail.”
Trump concluded that those he pardoned have ‘already served a long period of time’ and it was his ‘decision’ to release them, urging reporters to focus instead on former President Joe Biden.
He stated, “Joe Biden gave a pardon yesterday to a lot of criminals – these are criminals he gave a pardon to and you should be asking that question: Why did he give a pardon to all of these people that committed crimes? Why did he give a pardon to the J6 unselect committee when they burned and destroyed all documents that showed that they did what was wrong, not me? Why did they give a pardon to all of his relatives – his brother who made millions of dollars.
“To all these different people he gave pardons that’s the question you should be answering.”
Trump’s pardons included more than just the individual mentioned by the reporter, extending to around 1,500 defendants involved in the January 6 Capitol attack.
Shortly after being inaugurated as the 47th President, Trump swiftly signed off on several executive orders, including one titled ‘Ending the Weaponization of the federal government’.
The White House’s website states that under the previous administration, the Department of Justice ‘ruthlessly prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals associated with January 6’.
Trump accused the former administration of ‘inflicting political pain’ rather than ‘pursuing actual justice or legitimate government objectives’ against Americans who ‘spoke out against previous administration’s actions and other Americans who were simply exercising constitutionally protected rights’.
The order includes a presidential action pardoning multiple individuals ‘convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, to time served as of January 20, 2025’ and grants ‘a full, complete or unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events’ on the same day.
The White House website asserts, “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”