Trump Moves To Free Jan 6 Prisoners, Signs Several Executive Orders

President Donald Trump signed the first batch of nearly 200 expected day one executive orders following Monday’s inaugural parade, which was moved indoors due to dangerously cold temperatures outside. As part of his first official act, the president moved to free the January 6

Prior to Trump’s emergence behind the podium at the Capitol One Center — which was adorned with the presidential seal — the crowd of nearly 20,000 Trump supporters heard from Steve Witkoff, who played a key role in negotiating a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. The deal has already led to the release of three Israeli hostages from Gaza, while several more will be released in the coming days if the terms of the agreement are honored.

Several freed hostages — many of whom are American citizens — then shook hands with the commander-in-chief onstage.

Trump then turned his attention to the more than 1,600 American hostages who were seized by the Biden Administration in the years following the January 6 Capitol protests. “And you know tonight I’m going to be signing on the J6 hostages pardons to get them out. And as soon as I leave I’m going to the Oval Office and we’ll be signing pardons for a lot of people,” the president said.

As the speech was going on, preparations were being made to release the Biden Administration’s political prisoners as early as tonight. Footage captured from on-the-ground reporter Ford Fischer showed a sizable group of Trump supporters who gathered outside the D.C. jail, where they belted out chants of “USA” in anticipation of releases.

Elsewhere in the speech, Trump stated that he felt compelled to reference the January 6 political prisoners despite the fact that some advisors told him to avoid the topic. “We’re going to go to the Oval Office. We’re going to sign, we’re gonna release our great hostages that didn’t do, for the most part, they didn’t do stuff wrong,” Trump said.

He then pointed to the lack of prosecution for violent rioters in blue cities like Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis, many of whom attacked federal buildings and took over entire city blocks. Despite committing crimes that were far more severe, left-wing rioters were not hunted for four years like those who participated in the January 6 mass trespassing event were.

“In Portland, where they kill people, they destroy the city, nothing happens to them. In Seattle, where they took over a big chunk of the city, nothing happened. Minneapolis, where they burned down the city, nothing happened. Essentially, nothing happened. All they want to do is go after the J6 hostages,” Trump continued, adding that the Biden DOJ targeted several elderly Trump supporters for low level trespassing offenses.

“No, we’re not going to put up with that crap anymore,” the president declared.

While Trump and senior administration officials had said pardons will be reviewed on a “case-by-case basis,” the president immediately moved to free or commute the sentences of the January 6ers charged with the most “serious” offenses. This includes Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and War on Terror veteran Joe Biggs, both of whom were sentenced to multiple decades in prison after bogus “seditious conspiracy” trials.

Once in the Oval Office, Trump signed a blanket pardon for the more than 1,500 January 6 prisoners, all of whom went before a “jury of their peers” in Washington D.C., a city in which Vice President Kamala Harris received more than 92 percent of the vote. When asked if the order was for commutations or full pardons, Trump stressed that it was a “full pardon.”

The commander-in-chief then stepped down from the podium and made his way to a desk on the other side of the stage, where he proceeded to sign a flurry of executive orders. Trump first rescinded 80 Biden directives that provided increased protections for federal workers before signing new directives and hiring requirements.

He also imposed a hiring freeze on federal workers, issued directives to end politicized investigations from federal law enforcement, and formally withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords. Trump initially withdrew from the agreement — which compels the U.S. to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change while heavily polluted countries like China and India are exempt — in his first term before it was reintroduced by former President Biden.