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Trump issues secnd pardons for crimes related to Jan. 6

Nov. 15 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has issued second pardons to supporters who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, this time on separate related offenses.

The clemancy for Dan Wilson and Suzanne Kaye were announced online on Saturday by Ed Martin, a longtime supporter of the Jan. 6 rioters who is the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.

They were signed Friday by Trump.

“Thank you: Post! Danny Wilson is now a free man. When I was DC’s U.S. Attorney, and now as U.S. Pardon Attorney, I advocated for this clemency, which the president granted Friday.@POTUSThank you,” Ed Martin posted on X with a copy of the pardon.”

In another post with the document, Martin wrote: “Thank you: POTUS! The Biden DOJ targeted Suzanne Kaye for social media posts-and she was sentenced to 18 months in federal lock up. President Trump is unwinding the damage done by Biden’s DOJ weaponization, so the healing can begin.”

In May 2024, Wilson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer and was sentenced to five years in prison.

But the Louisville, Ky., man was in prison for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of an unregistered firearm. He was sentenced in August 2024 to prison until 2028.

It stems from when his home was searched in June 2022 as part of the federal government’s investigation of the intrusion.

A White House official told Politico that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues.”

When Trump retook office on Jan. 20, he pardoned him along with clemency to about 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, including pardons and commutations.

But Wilson had remained in prison on another conviction, along with a few other defendants for other federal crimes.

The Department of Justice at the time said “numerous firearms and ammunition” were recovered and forbidden because of previous felony convictions.

“For too long, my client has been held as a political prisoner by a government that criminalized dissent,” George Pallas, his attorney, said in a statement to CBS News. “President Trump’s pardon rights this wrong and sends a clear message that peaceful Americans will not be persecuted for their beliefs. Mr. Wilson is innocent, he has always been innocent, and this pardon proves it.”

Wilson had occasionally discussed bringing firearms to the Capitol, but ultimately arrived unarmed.

During the day, he posted messages and spoke to other members of his far-right groups, the Oath Keepers and Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia.

Initially, the Justice Department argued that Trump’s pardons did not extend to Wilson’s gun charges, but later changed its position. They received “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who oversaw Wilson’s case, criticized extending the pardon to cover offenses discovered in the course of the investigations. He was nominated by Trump.

Kaye, of Boca Raton, Fla., was sentenced two years ago to 18 months in prison for threatening to shoot FBI agents who had sought to question her about her involvement in the Capitol attack.

She denied that she had been at the Capitol that day, according to court records obtained by The New York Times. Before meeting FBI agent, she posted a series of videos online threatening the agents.

Jeremy Brown, also an Oath Keeper, was released from a seven-year sentence after his attorneys and the Justice Department claimed the pardon covered Brown’s unrelated conviction for illegally possessing classified information and grenades.

Elias Costianes also was released from jail after the Justice Department declined to fight the appeal of his conviction for illegally possessing firearms.

Edward Kelley was recently sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kill the officers and FBI agents who investigated his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack. Kelley had contended Trump’s pardon covered the conspiracy charge, but the Justice Department opposed him.

The Justice Department has opposed efforts by David Daniel after the FBI discovered child pornography on his computer during a Jan. 6-related search.

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Trump issues two pardons related to investigation into January 6, 2021 riot | Donald Trump News

Suzanne Ellen Kaye was convicted for threatening to shoot FBI agents, and Daniel Edwin Wilson for conspiring to impede or injure police offers and illegal firearm possession.

United States President Donald Trump has issued two new pardons related to the investigation into the January 6, 2021 US Capitol insurrection.

White House officials said on Saturday that one pardon was given to a woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents who were investigating a tip that she may have been at the US Capitol. Trump issued the second pardon for a defendant who had remained behind bars despite the sweeping grant of clemency for Capitol rioters because of a separate conviction for illegally possessing firearms.

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These pardons are the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use his constitutional authority to help supporters who were scrutinised as part of the massive January 6 investigation that was conducted by the administration of former US President Joe Biden and that led to charges against more than 1,500 defendants.

With a stroke of his pen and within hours of being sworn in for his second term in January of this year, Trump upended the largest prosecution in the history of the US Department of Justice.

He freed from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Suzanne Ellen Kaye, of Florida, was released last year after serving an 18-month sentence. After the FBI contacted her in 2021 about a tip indicating she may have been at the Capitol on January 6, she posted a video on social media citing her right under the US Constitution’s Second Amendment to carry a gun, and threatened to shoot agents if they came to her house.

Kaye testified at trial that she didn’t own any guns and didn’t intend to threaten the FBI, according to court papers. She told authorities she was not at the Capitol on January 6 and wasn’t charged with any Capitol riot-related crimes.

Trump also pardoned Daniel Edwin Wilson of Kentucky, who was under investigation for his role in the riot when authorities found six guns and roughly 4,800 rounds of ammunition in his home.

Wilson, who had been scheduled to remain in prison until 2028, was released Friday evening following the pardon, his lawyer said on Saturday.

A White House official said on Saturday that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues”.

Wilson had been sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede or injure police officers and illegally possessing firearms at his home.

Trump has said he would likely sue the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) next week for as much as $5bn after the British media company admitted it wrongly edited a video of a January 6, 2021 speech he gave, but insisted there was no legal basis for his claim.

The controversy centres on the BBC’s edit of Trump’s remarks on the day his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

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