The first Proud Boys leaders to seek pardons for their Capitol riot sedition convictions are asking President-elect Donald Trump directly three months before he takes office, foregoing the more typical and longer process of applying to the Department of Justice.
First in seeking a pardon is Joseph Biggs, a Florida-based leader of the far-right extremist group and the first rioter to topple police barricades and breach the Capitol’s perimeter on January 6, 2021.
Federal pardons are typically vetted by the Justice Department, which Trump hopes will be soon be headed by former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz.
While attending the Manhattan hush-money trial in support of Trump last May, Gaetz invoked the president-elect’s controversial comment, during a 2020 presidential debate, that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.
“Standing back and standing by, Mr. President,” Gaetz tweeted from Trump’s trial.
Standing back and standing by, Mr. President. pic.twitter.com/gGPeTLtWmv
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) May 16, 2024
Still, the DOJ vetting process can take years, according to the department’s own guidelines. Meanwhile, the Proud Boys want out now, and presidents have the Constitutional power to grant immediate pardons, Biggs attorney Norm Pattis said in a 10-page letter sent to Trump on Wednesday.
“No matter how big the shake-up at Justice will be, come January 2025, the agency has gone all in on the theory that January 6, 2021, was a direct threat to democracy,” and the DOJ will need time before learning “to hear the more subtle message that justice requires,” Pattis wrote.
On the campaign trail, Trump had repeatedly promised to grant speedy pardons to Capitol rioters, including if they were convicted of assaulting police officers. However, in one instance, he added he would only do so “if they’re innocent.”
Pattis’ letter on Biggs’ behalf seeks a full pardon and restoration of his Army disability pension. Biggs, who received a Purple Heart after active duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, is serving a 17-year sentence for seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol riot.
His letter begs Trump to “close a painful chapter in American history.”
“An event that should have been a minor footnote in our national life has become a chapter we are still writing,” Pattis wrote. “We urge you to close the book, to turn bitterness into reconciliation.”
Two years ago, Biggs and his Proud Boys codefendants had struck a different tone regarding Trump, arguing at trial that he incited the Capitol riot and that the Proud Boys were only following his orders.
Pattis questioned during closing arguments why Trump himself was not charged with seditious conspiracy.
“If my president tells me my republic is being stolen, who do I listen to?” Pattis had said in closing arguments on Biggs’ behalf before a federal judge in Washington, DC.
Wednesday’s letter now seeks common ground.
“Mr. President, you are no stranger to prosecutions warped by partisan vendetta,” the Biggs pardon letter says.
Former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio will also “explore every possible avenue” toward early release, his lawyer, Nayib Hassan, said in a press statement last week. Tarrio is serving a 22-year sentence.
Additional pardon requests will be sent soon to Trump on behalf of seditious conspiracy codefendants Zachary Rehl, who chaired the group’s Philadelphia chapter, and Dominic Pezzola, of Rochester, New York, according to Pattis, who said he is preparing those letters now.
Rehl is serving a 15-year sentence. Pezzola, the first rioter to breach the Capitol itself, is serving a 10-year sentence.
Prosecutors said Pezzola wrestled a riot shield from the hands of a Capitol Police officer and used it to break a window on the building’s west side, allowing the first of an estimated 2,000 rioters to enter. He later boasted that he would have killed then Vice-President Mike Pence if given the chance, prosecutors said.
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