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Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration remains to be attempting to expunge the final traces of the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol.
What occurred? On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s Justice Division requested a federal appeals court docket to vacate seditious conspiracy and different convictions towards 12 defendants concerned within the January 6 riot, the place Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in assist of his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, injuring about 140 law enforcement officials within the course of.
The request is step one in a course of that may possible result in January 6-related prices being wiped away for the defendants.
Who’re the rioters? All 12 are members of one in every of two far-right militia teams: the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. And all 12, together with two different rioters, had their sentences commuted by Trump on his first day again in workplace. Trump pardoned the greater than 1,500 different January 6 defendants outright.
What’s the context? Trump and his administration have lengthy tried to rewrite the historical past of the assault, portray its perpetrators as wrongfully prosecuted victims. On the five-year anniversary of the raid earlier this 12 months, his White Home argued that “it was the Democrats who staged the true rebellion” and accused police of getting “escalate[d] tensions” with rioters. (Neither is true.)
Why does this matter? Tuesday’s DOJ request doesn’t change something very concrete for the defendants who stand to have their convictions vacated, as they had been already not dealing with additional jail time.
But it surely shouldn’t be neglected, both. A number of the defendants poised to have their convictions vacated — “within the pursuits of justice,” in line with Trump’s DOJ — advocated for violence above and past even what occurred on January 6.
Considered one of them, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, mentioned shortly after the assault that “we should always have introduced rifles [on January 6]. We may have mounted it proper then and there. I’d cling [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi from the lamppost.”
And with that, it’s time to log out…
Have an incredible night, and we’ll see you again right here tomorrow!
