Trump’s pardon power looms over judges in Jan. 6 rioter cases

President-elect Trump’s pardoning power once he assumes office is looming over cases involving Jan. 6 rioters, prompting some delays over his promise to grant clemency to supporters who stormed the Capitol in 2021.

A federal judge has already agreed to delay a rioter’s trial until after Trump’s January inauguration – just over a week after the former president once again secured victory to the White House. But that may prove to be pointless if Trump makes good on a promise to pardon his supporters.

Will Pope, a doctoral student at Kansas State University who is facing several charges – and is representing himself – said Thursday that his trial scheduled for Dec. 2 will not proceed as planned. 

"(U.S. District Judge Rudolph) Contreras has granted my motion to continue my trial because he agreed a long trial was not a good use of judicial resources considering the likelihood of January 6 charges being dropped,” Pope wrote on the social media platform X.

A new trial date will be determined at a status hearing next month, the judge said in a brief order.

Contreras, who was appointed by former President Obama, is among the first to grant a delay in a Jan. 6 case following Trump’s presidential election victory.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, also declined Thursday to set a trial date for three rioters charged with misdemeanors for trespassing in the Capitol, citing Trump’s imminent takeover of the Justice Department, according to Politico. 

Most other judges have uniformly denied efforts by several Capitol rioters to push off their proceedings in hopes of future clemency. 

“Whatever the President-elect may or may not do with respect to some of those convicted for their conduct at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is irrelevant to the Court’s independent obligations and legal responsibilities,” Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman wrote Thursday, denying two rioters’ requests to delay their sentencings. 

More than 1,500 people were charged for their role on Jan. 6, with nearly half of them sentenced to time in prison and dozens more ordered into home detention. The Justice Department, under President Biden, has decried the attack as an assault on democracy and devoted extensive resources to conduct the complex prosecution.  

Trump, meanwhile, has described his supporters who rioted that day as “warriors,” “hostages” and “patriots.” 

On the campaign trail, the former president vowed he’d pardon those charged for participating in the mob that stormed the building as Congress certified Biden’s 2020 election win.

Jan. 6 defendants argued that sentencings, status hearings and entire cases should be shelved until he could make good on that promise upon returning to the White House.

Christopher Carnell, a rioter who was 18 years old on Jan. 6 and convicted on charges including disorderly conduct, was the first to ask a judge to delay a hearing in his case because relief from Trump was on the horizon.  

His attorney told senior U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell that Carnell was “awaiting further information” from Trump’s office regarding the “timing and expected scope of clemency actions.” Within hours, Howell denied the request. 

Several other rioters followed suit. 

Anna Lichnowski, a Florida resident convicted of four counts, told senior U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton that because her offenses were nonviolent and she has no other criminal record, she’s a strong pardon candidate. Delaying her sentencing would “save both judicial and government resources” and “serve the interests of justice,” she said. 

Walton, appointed by former President George W. Bush, denied her request. 

“The potential future exercise of the discretionary pardon power, an Executive Branch authority, is irrelevant to the Court’s obligation to carry out the legal responsibilities of the Judicial Branch,” the judge said.  

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb turned away a request by rioter Antonio Lamotta to push back the start of his six-month prison term on Friday. She said Lamotta, who was convicted on three of five counts he faced, pointed to “no authority” supporting his request to delay his sentence on the grounds that he may receive a presidential pardon in the future.” 

“The Court declines to preemptively effectuate a presidential pardon when the pardon authority rests exclusively in Article II, not Article III,” Cobb wrote. 

Senior U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, similarly wrote in response to a rioter’s request to delay his entire case that her decision would not rest on “events that may or may not transpire with respect to some or all of the January 6 defendants at some unspecified date in the future.”  

Rioter Mitchell Bosch asked to delay his D.C. trial due to heightened tensions in the nation’s capital following Trump’s reelection, noting that clemency was likely on the horizon, anyway. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, ruled that didn’t pass the bar, either. 

“Despite the recent election, the Court continues to conclude that the Court's voir dire procedures will be adequate to screen out potential jurors who cannot be fair and impartial,” Friedrich wrote. 

The judge said the court would add a question to its general jury questionnaire “to mitigate the risk of prejudice to the defendant” and ask follow-ups as needed. Bosch’s trial began Tuesday. 

U.S. District Judges Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, and Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, unceremoniously denied other requests.  

Federal judges in Washington, D.C. have heard hundreds of cases stemming from the Capitol attack, from rioters facing misdemeanor counts to charges of seditious conspiracy against the U.S. government. 

Leaders of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who were given the harshest sentences tied to Jan. 6, are also planning to seek pardons from Trump. 

Though it is unknown how many rioters Trump will pardon, if any, he’s vowed to make it a priority when he returns to the nation’s highest office next year.  

“The moment we win, we will rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner unjustly victimized by the Harris regime,” Trump said in September, “and I will sign their pardons on Day 1.”