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The Hard Right Responds to Jan. 6 Pardons

Megan Squire, Creede Newton

A person wearing a beanie and sunglasses stands in front of a U.S. flag flying upside down with a cigar protruding from a facemask.

The Hard Right Responds to Jan. 6 Pardons

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Online, most fans of President Trump were effusive in their praise for his decision to issue pardons and commute sentences for 1,600 defendants in cases linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Others grappled with whether the pardons implied guilt and what should be the fate of those, like Proud Boys leaders Enrique Tarrio and Jeremy Bertino, who had cooperated with law enforcement and were now free.

The overall mood in Trump-friendly online spaces was jubilant. In response to an exclusive video posted on Gateway Pundit about the pardon of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, one user invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., writing that the incarcerated individuals were “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty they’re free at last!!!!”

Another user fantasized about the future fate of the prison wardens who had overseen Rhodes’ incarceration, writing, “THE THINGS I FEEL LIKE DOING TO THESE VIPERS IS NOT SOMETHING I WISH UPON GOOD PATRIOTS TO EVEN THINK OF ;))”

Proud Boys were similarly excited. The main Proud Boys channel on Telegram called the moment “a huge victory and potential enormous great news of pardons” but warned each other not to “look for trouble” or engage in behavior that would attract more attention from federal authorities.

Snitches

Not all Proud Boys were happy with the pardons, however. During their trials, the revelation that former chairman of the group Enrique Tarrio and North Carolina-based leader Jeremy Bertino had both cooperated with federal law enforcement led to schisms between different Proud Boys chapters. Now, disgruntled members of the group greeted the news about Tarrio’s release with taunts suggesting the Afro-Cuban former leader should be immediately deported, while another, using an anti-gay slur, called Bertino a “f****t snitch.”

Guilt paradox

Bertino was one of a large group of defendants who had not yet been sentenced for their actions on Jan. 6, prompting confusion to some on the far right over whether or not these preemptive pardons were vindicating. Some users on trolling website 4chan flip-flopped between arguments that the pardons for the family of former President Joe Biden, which Biden issued earlier on the same day, were an admission of guilt, while the pardons of Jan. 6 defendants were justified and did not imply guilt.

One user wrote, “if you offer a pardon you think a person is guilty and if you accept the pardon then you are confessing to the guilt.” Another user asked: “Does this same logic apply to the Biden family?” which prompted a lengthy discussion of preemptive versus post facto pardons, which ended — as many 4chan threads do — in name-calling and accusations of being federal agents.

Emboldened

Some Telegram users responded to the pardons by posting “never before seen video” and pictures of themselves at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack.

Jason Kessler, organizer of the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” white nationalist event in Charlottesville, Virginia, posted a photo of himself on the Capitol grounds and compared himself to Forrest Gump for his appearance at both deadly events. Another user agreed, saying, “I was there too and never told anybody.”

Another user posted in a North Carolina-based antigovernment Patriot channel: “In honor of total J6 pardons. Here are some never-before-seen videos I have from J6.”

Another Unite the Right attendee, video livestreamer Anthime “Tim” Gionet, also known as Baked Alaska, posted on X about his pardon, prompting congratulations from several far-right figures including Lara Logan and Douglass Mackey. Mackey, a prolific troll and creator of disinformation memes who used the alias Ricky Vaughn on social media, was convicted in 2023 of conspiring to deprive citizens of their right to vote in the 2016 election.

Gionet thanked Mackey for his support and added, “Hope you’re up next!!!”

Picture at top: A member of the Proud Boys smokes a cigar on Jan. 21, 2025, outside the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, D.C., following the pardons by President Donald Trump of the about 1,600 criminal defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Credit: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)