Vice President-elect JD Vance said President-elect Donald Trump plans to issue pardons for individuals who "were prosecuted unfairly" for peacefully protesting, but not those who participated in violent riots, at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“If you protested peacefully on January the 6th, and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned,” Vance said during an appearance on FOX News Sunday. "If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned, and there's a little bit of a gray area there, but we're very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law. And there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that."
Trump previously told Meet the Press' Kristen Welker that he planned to pardon January 6 protesters during his first day back in the White House, claiming the January 6 committee in Congress belonged in jail instead.
"I’m going to look at everything. We’ll look at individual cases," Trump said in December. "But I’m going to be acting very quickly."
Vance later addressed backlash from some accusing him of "waling back" promises to pardon those who were at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
"First of all, I donated to the to the J6 political prisoner fund and got ROASTED for it during my senate race," Vance wrote in a post shared on X. "I've been defending these guys for years. Second, there were federal informants in the crowd. Do they get a pardon? I don't think so. The president saying he'll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walkback. I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial."