The rioters that took part in the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 are calling on Donald Trump to pardon them because they did what he told them to do.
Recently, North Texas realtor Jenna Ryan made headlines when she told CBS11 that President Trump gave her an excuse to be at the riots.
“I just want people to know I’m a normal person, that I listen to my president who told me to go to the Capitol,” she said. “That I was displaying my patriotism while I was there and I was just protesting and I wasn’t trying to do anything violent and I didn’t realize there was actually violence.”
Speaking to ABC News, retired U.S. Navy SEAL Adam Newbold said that he’s seeking “clemency” after videos he posted to Facebook showing him bragging about “breaching” the Capitol.
“I would like to express to you just a cry for clemency, as you understand that my life now has been absolutely turned upside-down. I am not a terrorist. I am not a traitor,” he said, adding that he’s now “cooperating with the FBI” and that things were “taken too far.”
The attorney for Jacob Anthony Chansley, a.k.a. Jake Angeli — the man who can be seen in widely circulated photos wearing horns and carrying a spear inside the Capitol, is arguing that his client deserves a pardon because he had “hitched his wagon” to Trump and felt he was answering a “call” from the President.
“The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something,” attorney Albert Watkins said.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, UC Berkeley history professor Brian DeLay said that the rioters’ expectations of a pardon from Trump reflect a deep sense of entitlement.
“Impunity is in some ways kind of the defining feature of Trump as a public personality and of the Trump presidency. He has taken impunity to an art form,” DeLay said.
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