“THE MAN WHO KILLED MY BROTHER”
Craig Sicknick, whose brother, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was assaulted during the riot and died of multiple strokes the next day, called Trump “pure evil” on Tuesday.
“The man who killed my brother is now president,” he told Reuters.
“My brother died in vain. Everything he did to try to protect the country, to protect the Capitol – why did he bother?” Sicknick said. “What Trump did is despicable, and it proves that the United States no longer has anything that resembles a justice system.”
Trump’s order extended from the people who committed only misdemeanors such as trespassing all the way to those who served as ringleaders for the assault.
Nearly 60 per cent of respondents in the two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted starting immediately after Trump took office on Monday, said he should not pardon all of the Capitol defendants.
One of Trump’s fellow Republicans, Senator Thom Tillis, said sparing rioters who assaulted police sent a wrong message.
“I saw an image today in my news clippings of the people who were crushing that police officer. None of them should get a pardon,” Tillis told Reuters in a hallway interview. “You make this place less safe if you send the signal that police officers could potentially be assaulted and there is no consequence.”
Others welcomed Trump’s decision. Republican Representative Lauren Boebert said she would offer tours of the Capitol to defendants after they are released.
Among those released earlier in the day was Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group.
Tarrio was not present at the Capitol on Jan 6, but was sentenced to 22 years, longer than for any other defendant, after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the attack.
