Two former New York City police officers. Members of the far-right groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. A man who publicly challenged law enforcement authorities to arrest him.
They were among nearly 1,600 criminal defendants who received an extraordinary legal reprieve on Monday when President Trump pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of almost everyone charged with taking part in the riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The sweeping action, according to a White House proclamation, “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, scoffed at that characterization in a statement on Tuesday. Those who “invaded the Capitol” should not have been pardoned “whether they committed violence or not,” Mr. Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said.
“Donald Trump is ushering in a Golden Age for people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government,” he added.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, without addressing the pardons explicitly, said the officers who defended the Capitol had done “heroic work” defending “the very foundation of our democracy.”
“Anyone who assaults a police officer should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Ms. Hochul, also a Democrat, added. “As Americans, we should be condemning these cowardly attacks — not celebrating them.”
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat facing trial on federal bribery charges whom Mr. Trump, a Republican, has said he would consider pardoning, declined repeatedly at a news conference on Tuesday to comment on the Jan. 6 pardons or whether he considered the president responsible for the riot.
The charges against Jan. 6 defendants with New York ties ranged from trespassing to assaulting law enforcement officers and seditious conspiracy. Those whose cases drew wide attention included:
Thomas Webster: A former Marine and a retired New York City police officer who once served on Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s protective detail, Mr. Webster was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of assault and other charges.
Videos showed Mr. Webster screaming expletives and berating officers at a barricade at the Capitol during the riot, swinging a metal flagpole at one police officer and then shoving through a police line to tackle the officer.
At trial, Mr. Webster claimed self-defense, saying the officer had provoked him with a brief wave before throwing a punch at him. The jury rejected his argument.
A lawyer for Mr. Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dominic Pezzola: Mr. Pezzola, a Proud Boys member and a flooring contractor from Rochester, N.Y., set off the initial breach of the building by smashing a window with a police riot shield. He was one of 14 people whose sentences Mr. Trump commuted with his action on Monday.
Mr. Pezzola, with bushy hair and a scruffy beard, was seen in widely viewed video clips of the riot, hammering on the Capitol window with the stolen shield.
Unlike other Proud Boys members with whom he stood trial, he was not convicted of seditious conspiracy but was found guilty of six other felonies, including assaulting a police officer and conspiring to keep members of Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, half of what prosecutors had sought.
A lawyer for Mr. Pezzola did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Roberto Minuta: Mr. Minuta, who graduated from high school in Newburgh, N.Y., and once operated a tattoo parlor there, was one of four Oath Keepers members who were convicted of seditious conspiracy in January 2023. He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Mr. Minuta, prosecutors said, was among a cadre of Oath Keepers serving as bodyguards on Jan. 6 for Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser to Mr. Trump, when he and the others answered the call of the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, to descend on the Capitol.
At his sentencing, Mr. Minuta sought to distance himself from the group.
“I disavow the Oath Keepers as an organization; I was misled and naïve,” he said. “I’m repulsed by Mr. Rhodes’s lack of remorse.”
A lawyer for Mr. Minuta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thomas Sibick: Mr. Sibick, of Amherst, N.Y., was sentenced to just over four years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in the assault on Michael Fanone, a Metropolitan Police officer who testified before Congress about fighting for his life to defend the Capitol against the violent mob.
In a letter to the judge overseeing the case before he was sentenced, Mr. Sibick called the trauma Officer Fanone had experienced “undeniably sickening” and said he took full responsibility for his “uncivilized display of reckless behavior,” The Associated Press reported,
“It was an attack on the institutions of our democracy and not as some would make you believe legitimate political discourse,” he wrote.
Footage from police body cameras showed that while other rioters attacked Officer Fanone, Mr. Sibick snatched his badge and radio. He returned the badge to the authorities after first burying it in his backyard. The radio was never recovered.
A lawyer for Mr. Sibick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Officer Fanone, who retired from the police department in 2021, said Tuesday that Mr. Trump’s action made him feel “betrayed by my country.”
Sara Carpenter: A former New York City police officer, Ms. Carpenter was sentenced to 22 months in prison for her role in the riot, which included pushing against and slapping officers while yelling and wielding a tambourine.
She was convicted of several crimes, including civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding and entering or remaining in a restricted building or ground, court records show.
At one point during the riot, prosecutors said, Ms. Carpenter could be heard yelling at the officers, “I’m an animal,” with a common vulgarity added for emphasis.
When she finally left the building, prosecutors said, she was recorded on video saying: “The breach was made. It needs to calm down now. Congress needs to come out. They need to certify Trump as president. This is our house.”
A lawyer for Ms. Carpenter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Edward Jacob Lang: Mr. Lang, of Newburgh, has been in jail awaiting trial since being charged shortly after the riot with several crimes, including civil disorder and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
Investigators homed in on Mr. Lang after he posted photos and videos on social media that showed him on the Capitol grounds during the rampage by Mr. Trump’s supporters.
“I was the leader of Liberty today,” he wrote in the caption on one video, he wrote. “Arrest me. You are on the wrong side of history.”
In social media posts by other rioters, Mr. Lang could be seen swinging a baseball bat at police officers and thrusting a riot shield in their direction, according to the court filings.
A lawyer for Mr. Lang, Anthony Sabatini, welcomed the pardon.
“Jake Lang is a good man and totally innocent,” Mr. Sabatini said. “Justice in America has been restored.” The New York Post reported in November that Mr. Lang was among the Jan. 6 defendants with pending cases who believed Mr. Trump’s election would result in a pardon.
Another New Yorker charged in connection with the riot, Philip Sean Grillo, echoed that view last month when he was sentenced to a year in prison after being convicted of obstructing an official proceeding, a felony, and several misdemeanors.
As a U.S. marshal led him from the courtroom, CNN reported, Mr. Grillo, of Queens, said: “Trump’s going to pardon me anyways.”
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