US President Donald Trump agreed it’s ‘never acceptable to assault a police officer’ before justifying the release of a January 6 convict who assaulted an officer with a taser.
On Monday (January 20), Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
Within 24 hours, he issued a pardon for around 1,500 criminals convicted for their involvement in the Capitol Riots which saw violent attacks on police protecting the Capitol building in Washington – with the events of January 6 seeing over 140 police officers injured and at least seven people dead.
Daniel Joseph ‘DJ’ Rodriguez attacked officer Michael Fanone with a stun gun to his neck, with Rodriguez pleading 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, according to NBC News.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
During a press briefing at the White House, a reporter asked Trump: “You would agree it’s never acceptable to assault a police officer?”
In a clip of the press conference shared online by Forbes, the president responds: “Sure.”
The journalist continues: “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’s first response saw him state: “Well, I don’t know.”
He then 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.”
Oh, and Trump was only just getting started.
Mentioning Philadelphia and Los Angeles, Trump reflected that ‘people murder people and they don’t get charged’ arguing the people he’s pardoning ‘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’.
He continued: “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 resolved those he’s pardoning have ‘already served a long period of time’ and it was his ‘decision’ to set them free, instead directing reporters to look at former US President Joe Biden instead.
He said: “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.”
And Trump isn’t only pardoning the individual named by the reporter but around 1,500 criminal defendants charged in the January 6 Capitol attack.
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Within the first 24 hours of being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, Trump wasted no time signing off on multiple executive orders including one under a section titled ‘Ending the Weaponization of the federal government’.
The White House’s page states under prior administration, the Department of Justice ‘ruthlessly prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals associated with January 6’.
Trump accused the past 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 links to 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’ alongside granting ‘a full, complete or unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events’ on the same day too.
The White House’s website states: “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.”
