Five years after he and his allies tried and failed to overturn the results of the 2020 election, President Donald Trump is using his time back in the White House to take a series of actions aimed at erasing or rewriting the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol, with more likely to come.
Trump mass pardoned Jan. 6 rioters on his first day back in office. Justice Department officials and FBI agents involved in the massive investigation and prosecution were fired. Dozens of other supporters involved in efforts to overturn the election results have been pre-emptively pardoned.
A former Jan. 6 prosecutor said Trump’s actions — and the growing embrace of them by a broader swath of Americans — were “maddening.”
“I spoke with dozens and dozens of people who were there that day and who are still dealing with the trauma,” said the prosecutor, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. “It makes you feel crazy because you know what happened that day, but there is the chief executive nodding positively along to this narrative that they are trying to build.”
At least 140 law enforcement officers were injured and millions of dollars in damage was done to the Capitol in 2021, as thousands of pro-Trump rioters shattered windows and broke through the doors in a failed effort to stop the counting of electoral votes to certify Joe Biden’s win.
On the anniversary Tuesday, as pro-Trump demonstrators gathered near the Capitol, the White House launched a page on its official website dedicated to Trump’s narrative, claiming the protesters were peaceful in 2021 and it was the police response that escalated tensions. A timeline reads: “Stolen Election Certified,” and restated claims that former Vice President Mike Pence was trying to sabotage Trump when he refused to stop the certification of electoral votes.
On X, the former vice president said it was a “tragic day,” but that it “became a triumph of freedom when, after Capitol Police quelled the violence, leaders in both chambers in both political parties reconvened the very same day and finished democracy’s work under the Constitution.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said on Monday that it was the media that was still focused on the Capitol siege.
“The media’s continued obsession with January 6 is one of the many reasons trust in the press is at historic lows — they aren’t covering issues that the American people actually care about,” she said in a statement. “President Trump was resoundingly reelected to enact an agenda based on securing the border, driving down crime, and restarting our economy — the president is delivering.”
A federally funded compensation fund for Jan. 6 rioters was under discussion, Trump has said, “because a lot of the people in government really like that group of people.”
His administration has already paid nearly $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt, who was carrying a knife and was killed trying to jump through a broken window to the House Speaker’s Lobby.
Barry Silbermann, an attorney who represents some Jan. 6 defendants, said he has been in communication with the Justice Department about his clients’ claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
“President Trump has expressed willingness, but that has to translate into allocation of funds,” Silbermann said. “They had their lives unilaterally destroyed unfairly by a deep state within the Department of Justice that needs to be rectified.”
Some Republican senators are similarly threatening to sue the federal government for compensation after having learned their phone records were seized as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
And Trump has said he is seeking “a lot of money” from the federal government because of Smith’s investigation.
“I was damaged very greatly, and any money that I would get I would give to charity,” he said.
In the months after the attack, Americans generally agreed on what had just happened; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called it a “terrorist attack.”
But that sentiment, especially among Republicans, has shifted over the years as Trump regained political power while continuing to claim the 2020 election had been stolen. By the time of the first anniversary of Jan. 6, Cruz said his remark had been “frankly dumb.”
The office of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that a plaque meant to honor the officers who protected lawmakers that day won’t be put up.
As the five-year federal statute of limitations for most of the crimes committed on Jan. 6 expires, some former defendants are now in positions of power. Yet others have been charged with new crimes or are struggling with legal, employment and housing issues.
Gina Bisignano, a cosmetologist in Beverly Hills, California, who initially reached a plea deal in her Jan. 6 case and testified against another rioter who said he was following Trump’s “marching orders,” said she believes people “absolutely” are more sympathetic to Jan. 6 defendants now than in the past. But while she appreciates Trump’s pardon, she said she still hasn’t been able to work as she was before her arrest.
“I can’t get my platform for teaching back,” Bisignano said in an interview.
Yet for some Capitol siege defendants, Trump’s actions haven’t gone far enough.
“The pardons were great, but the pardons don’t erase everything that they did,” said Troy Smocks, who was convicted of making threats against lawmakers and tech executives during the riot and now wants the Trump administration to prosecute the prosecutors in his case.
An upcoming Justice Department report on the so-called weaponization against Jan. 6 rioters is expected to echo Trump’s and his supporters’ narrative.
Jared Wise, a former Jan. 6 defendant who is among those assisting with the project, was captured on video yelling “kill ’em” at officers protecting the Capitol. He was on trial when Trump announced his Jan. 6 pardons. Wise, a former FBI supervisory special agent, was hired to work under Ed Martin, a conservative activist and advocate for Jan. 6 defendants who is leading the project.
Former Jan. 6 defendant Brian Mock, who was convicted of assaulting police after a trial in which he represented himself, told NBC News that he met with Martin and complained about his prosecutor, Mike Gordon, whom the Trump administration later fired.
Along with Wise, other Trump Justice Department employees working on Jan. 6 matters include: Vance Day, who faced a series of ethical issues as an Oregon judge and was suspended from the bench; Jonathan Gross, a former Jan. 6 defense attorney who compared Capitol siege prosecutions to the Holocaust and helped spread conspiracy theories about the attack, including that it was instigated by the FBI; and Marshall Yates, the head of the FBI’s congressional affairs section, who was former Rep. Mo Brooks’ chief of staff when Brooks, R-Ala., spoke at the Jan. 6 rally. Yates also worked for the Election Integrity Network, which is headed by a key figure in efforts to overturn the 2020, and he has said the “election objection did not go as we wanted” on Jan. 6.
Asked about Wise’s role, a Justice Department spokesperson said, “Jared Wise is a valued member of the Department of Justice, and we appreciate his contributions to our team.” He wasn’t available to comment. Reuters first reported Wise’s role.
Inside Trump’s government, many prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases — as well as those who were part of Smith’s team — have been fired or pushed out.
For those who know the cases best, the president’s attempts to reframe what happened that day can be enraging.
A second former Jan. 6 prosecutor told NBC News that Trump and his allies seem “to genuinely believe that Jan. 6 was a peaceful, lawful gathering of well-intentioned patriots and that any violence or destruction that occurred that day stemmed from the acts of embedded antifa actors or provocation by law enforcement.” Those conspiracy theories about the riots can be debunked by even “a cursory glance at the video, photo and social media evidence,” said the prosecutor, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The sky is blue, the Earth is round, and Jan. 6 was a historically violent day that will forever be a stain on this country’s history,” the prosecutor said. “Political convenience does not change the facts.”
Monica Alba, Ben Kamisar, Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner and Sahil Kapur contributed to this report.
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