May 25 (UPI) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he would consider pardoning former President Donald Trump and his supporters convicted in rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if he is elected to the White House.
DeSantis made his comments in an interview with “The Clay Travis and Bud Sexton Show” podcast, a day after the Florida leader announced he would campaign against his one-time ally for the Republican nomination ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
“I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases, who are people who are victims of weaponization or political targeting, and we will be aggressive at issuing pardons. Now, some of these cases, some people may have a technical violation of the law,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said that he would seek to use presidential pardon powers “on Day One,” a break from tradition with most presidents who typically wait until the end of their administrations to issue the legal reprieves.
“We’re going to find examples where government’s been weaponized against disfavored groups, and we will apply relief as appropriate. But it will be done on a case-by-case basis,” DeSantis said.
In his remarks, DeSantis added: “I would say any example of disfavored treatment based on politics or weaponization would be included in that review, no matter how small or how big.”
DeSantis claimed that the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI “have been weaponized” and that federal agents are “going to school board meeting,” though it was not immediately clear what the governor was commenting on.
The governor, in the interview, also claimed that he has bolstered the Florida economy despite being at war with Disney, the state’s largest employer.
Trump, in one of the first speeches of his 2024 presidential campaign, said earlier this year that he would treat convicted rioters “fairly” by issuing pardons for them, Forbes reported.
The former president also previously said that he would issue “full pardons with an apology to many.”
The news came as Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the extremist militia Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy — marking the largest such sentence received by a Jan. 6 defendant.
Prosecutors said Rhodes, 57, was in contact with Trump between his election loss and Jan. 6, calling on him to invoke the Insurrection Act with the intent of creating an armed militia to act on his behalf.
“It will be 1776 all over again,” Rhodes wrote to fellow Oath Keepers leaders in a group message. “Force on force is the way to go.”