On Monday, President Donald Trump delivered on a major campaign promise by issuing a sweeping clemency proclamation, granting pardons to approximately 1,500 individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach.
The order provided full, unconditional pardons to most of those convicted, addressing what many of Trump’s supporters viewed as a significant miscarriage of justice. The clemency also resulted in the dismissal of over 300 pending cases related to the events of January 6, effectively bringing an end to the largest investigation in the history of the Justice Department.
On Monday, two brothers from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Andrew Valentin, 26, and Matthew Valentin, 31, were released from the Central Detention Facility in Washington, D.C. Their release followed their sentencing last Friday, during which Matthew pleaded guilty to two felony counts and Andrew to one felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.
The charges against them originated from their involvement in the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach, where they were identified in an open-source video marching from the Washington Monument along Constitution Avenue toward the U.S. Capitol. Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison to the Justice Department, announced outside the jail just before midnight that the Valentins were among the first to benefit from Trump’s recent pardons.
Ingrassia told reporters, “The first two January 6 defendants have been released. This is a few hours after President Trump signed his historic pardon,” describing the pardon as a “monumental moment in our history.” He further explained, “This injustice is ending in America tonight and this dark chapter in our country’s history is coming to an end.”
Despite Trump’s plans for pardons, the Department of Justice under now-former President Biden continued legal proceedings last week without interruption, adding to the 1,583 individuals already charged. On the final day of federal court proceedings, before Trump assumed office, the judge presiding over the now-dismissed criminal case against the president-elect related to the January 6 riot remarked to defendants that they might be the last rioters she would have the opportunity to sentence.
The Valentins were sentenced to two and a half years in prison for their involvement in the January 6 events and were immediately taken into custody to begin serving their sentences. Both brothers admitted guilt in September, pleading guilty to assaulting police officers. Trump granted full and unconditional pardons to most individuals and commuted sentences to time served for 14 prominent figures, including leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. During the Oval Office document signing, Trump said, “This is a big one… We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” he added.
Democrats and their left-wing lackeys in the tone-deaf media immediately protested hypocritically, despite the fact that Biden quietly pardoned his entire family hours before he left office, pardoned his son last month, and blanket-pardoned all Jan. 6 Committee members as well.
