Rodney Brooks

Factual · Other · Political

“Trump's DOJ says that the Jan 6th rioters should be pardoned for threatening to hang Mike Pence”

Rodney Brooks, writing on X · 29 April 2026 · Post by @rodneyabrooks on X, 2026-04-29 (X)

The Trump administration's DOJ has said that Jan 6th rioters who threatened to hang Mike Pence should be pardoned.

Mixed Partly true and partly false in roughly equal measure.

The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

What would count as true or false

True: on or before 29 April 2026, the Trump administration's Department of Justice stated (in a court filing, official statement or official testimony) that Jan 6 defendants whose conduct included threatening to hang Mike Pence should be, or were properly, pardoned or covered by the pardons. Mostly true: the DOJ defended or applied pardons for defendants it acknowledged made such threats, without explicitly saying they 'should be pardoned'. Mixed: the DOJ said only that the pardons covered all Jan 6 conduct, and the Pence threats are implied but not addressed. Mostly false: the statement came from Trump or other officials rather than the DOJ, or the DOJ's position concerned other offenses. False: the DOJ made no such statement, or explicitly said such conduct was not covered.

Evidence

1. Durbin, Senate Judiciary Democrats Ask AG Bondi For Clarification On The Trump Admin's Extreme & Partisan Approach To The Pardon Power | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (Democratic press release) · 1 April 2025

   “After initially concluding that the pardons covered only crimes committed at the Capitol on January 6, various DOJ prosecutors now assert ‘after consultation’ with Department leaders, that President Trump intended to pardon unrelated offenses.”

2. Trump administration moves to toss remaining Jan. 6 convictions, clearing Proud Boys and Oath Keepers NBC News · 15 April 2026

   “In the Executive Branch’s view, it is not in the interests of justice to continue to prosecute this case or the cases of other, similarly situated defendants," officials wrote.”

3. Trump Justifies J6 Pardons With Misinformation - FactCheck.org FactCheck.org · 24 January 2025

   “But in his proclamation, Trump granted clemency to everyone who was accused of committing a crime related to the Capitol riot, including the hundreds who had been convicted of violently assaulting law enforcement officials.”

4. HMKP-119-JU00-20260108-SD006.pdf House Judiciary Committee Democrats (staff report, via congress.gov)

   “Outside the Capitol, rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and erected gallows.”

Reasoning

E1 reports that DOJ prosecutors, after consulting Department leaders, argued that Trump's Jan. 6 pardons covered unrelated offenses, beyond crimes committed at the Capitol on January 6. E2 shows the DOJ saying that continuing to prosecute a Jan. 6 case and those of similarly situated defendants is "not in the interests of justice." E3 and E4 show that the clemency covered everyone charged over the riot, and that rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence." None of the evidence shows the DOJ speaking about defendants who threatened Pence, let alone saying they should be pardoned. That matches the "mixed" criterion: the DOJ backed broad coverage of Jan. 6 conduct, which implies the Pence threats were included without addressing them.

Cite this claim

Rodney Brooks, “The Trump administration's DOJ has said that Jan 6th rioters who threatened to hang Mike Pence should be pardoned.” (said 29 April 2026). Verdict: mixed. Reliability API, claim c_3793f958de02, method 0.1.0+c876030c. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_3793f958de02