Some 1,358 defendants have been charged in the 38 months since the January 2021 riots
Washington:
Donald Trump on Monday pledged to release people imprisoned for their role in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol in one of his first actions if re-elected, calling them “hostages.”
On January 6, 2021, rioters at the instigation of the then-President and incited by his false claims of voter fraud attacked the seat of American democracy in an attempt to prevent the transfer of power to Joe Biden.
Some 1,358 defendants have been charged in the 38 months since, according to the latest figures released by the Justice Department last week. About 500 people were jailed.
Trump made the comments on his “Truth Society” website and pledged to close the border with Mexico as part of his first actions if re-elected, but gave no details.
“As your next president, my first actions will be to close the borders, drill, drill, drill, and release the hostages wrongly imprisoned on January 6th!” he wrote late Monday.
Trump has previously commented on his hypothetical first day in office, vowing during a televised town hall in December that he would not play the role of a dictator “other than on day one.”
It’s also not the first time Trump has called his imprisoned supporters “hostages” or suggested their release.
In January, he pleaded with President Biden at a campaign rally in Iowa to “release the J6 hostages, Joe.”
Trump faces four criminal indictments, two federal and one in Georgia, for trying to overturn the election results after his loss to Biden.
Trump is all but certain to be the Republican presidential nominee after his last rival, Nikki Haley, dropped out of the race after a landslide victory in the primary.
Trump insists that the support he enjoys among the Republican base has been strengthened, not undermined, by his many legal woes.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
