Trump's Promise to Free Jan. 6 Inmates in DC Jail -- Almost All of Them Assaulted Law Enforcement Officers

https://www.justsecurity.org/94157/january-6th-detainees-dc-jail/

Former President Donald Trump has made the January 6th defendants central to his campaign. It is “most likely,” Trump has said, that he would pardon “a large portion of them.” One of his “first acts” in office, Trump wrote last month, would be to “Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongly imprisoned!”

It can be difficult for journalists and the public to isolate which January 6th defendants Trump has in mind. However, Trump has taken a particular interest in the January 6th defendants held in Washington, D.C.

On Mar. 22, Trump posted on Truth Social a flier advertising a nightly vigil for the inmates held by the D.C. Department of Corrections. “Stand in solidarity with our January 6th Political Prisoners in the DC jail as we honor their bravery,” the flier reads. “At 9:00pm, everyone stops what they are doing to stand in solidarity as we all sing the National Anthem together.” Trump captioned the flier with his own announcement of the vigil.

The vigil is organized by Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter and QAnon adherent who was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer on Jan. 6, 2021. Babbitt was attempting to climb through a broken window in a door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby of the U.S. Capitol at the time. Rioters broke the glass and pounded on the doors as members of Congress were evacuating just feet away.

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