11 Jan. 6 Defendants From CT Pardoned In Trump’s First Official Act

CONNECTICUT — In the first in a blizzard of executive actions after arriving at the White House Monday, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including 11 from Connecticut.

Trump also commuted the sentences of another 14 people, including leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. These were charged with some of the most serious and high-profile cases.

The decision amounted to a sweeping cloak of impunity for Trump supporters who upended the country’s tradition of peaceful transfers of power by trying to overturn his election defeat four years ago. Trump described them as “hostages” and said he expected them to be freed shortly.

"These mass pardons are sickening— the ultimate disrespect for police officers who were assaulted brutally by criminal rioters, suffering lasting injuries, & death in some cases," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

People convicted in Connecticut include:

• Benjamin Cohen, Westport: Charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.
• Jean Lavin and Carla Krzywicki, Canterbury: Charge of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building.
• Patrick E. McCaughey III, Ridgefield: Charges, three counts of aiding or abetting or assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers, including one involving a dangerous weapon; one count of obstruction of an official proceeding; one count of interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and one count of engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon. The two misdemeanor charges include disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building and committing an act of violence in the Capitol Building or grounds.
• Jeremy K. Baouche, New London: Charge of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building.
• James Roe Cleary, Waterford: Charge of obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.
• Richard T. Crosby, Jr., Harwinton: Charges of entering and remaining on the floor of Congress, obstruction of justice/Congress, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in the Capitol, and parading, demonstrating or picketing at the Capitol.
• Gino DiGiovanni Jr., Derby: Charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
• Richard Markey, Wolcott: Charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
• Michael Kenny and Thomas Kenny, Greenwich: Charges of disorderly conduct in a capitol building or grounds, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building.

According to the mother of McCaughey, her son is already on his way back to Connecticut from federal prison in Ohio, where he was serving a sentence of seven and a half years, the Connecticut Post reported.

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Those pardoned included former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison — the longest term of imprisonment among all of those charged with the Jan. 6 attack — on a conviction of seditious conspiracy.

Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia, who had received the second-longest sentence — 18 years — on his seditious conspiracy conviction was released from a Cumberland, Maryland, federal prison early Tuesday morning.

Trump also ordered the attorney general to seek the dismissal of roughly 450 cases that are pending before judges stemming from the largest investigation in Justice Department history.

Trump has claimed they were unfairly treated by the Justice Department, which also charged him with federal crimes in two cases he contends were politically motivated. Trump said the pardons will end “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years” and begin “a process of national reconciliation.”

The pardons were met with elation from Trump supporters and lawyers for the Jan. 6 defendants. Trump supporters gathered late Monday in the cold outside the Washington jail, where more than a dozen defendants were being held before the pardons.

“We are deeply thankful for President Trump for his actions today,” said James Lee Bright, an attorney who represented Rhodes.

“This marks a pivotal moment in our client’s life, and it symbolizes a turning point for our nation,” Tarrio attorney Nayib Hassan said in a statement. “We are optimistic for the future, as we now turn the page on this chapter, embracing new possibilities and opportunities.””

Democrats slammed the move to extend the pardons to violent rioters, many of whose crimes were captured on camera and broadcast on live TV.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution.”

“Donald Trump is ushering in a Golden Age for people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in an emailed statement.

Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after a rioter shocked him with a stun gun, appeared taken aback to learn from an Associated Press reporter that those who assaulted police officers are among the pardon recipients.

“This is what the American people voted for,” he said. “How do you react to something like that?”

Fanone said he has spent the past four years worried about his safety and the well-being of his family. Pardoning his assailants only compounds his fears, he said.

“I think they’re cowards,” he said. “Their strength was in their numbers and the mob mentality. And as individuals, they are who they are.”

— The Associated Press contributed reporting.