CHICAGO (WLS) — Traditionally, the date presidential elections are licensed are mundane. That’s, till 4 years in the past, when it meant certifying a loss that the forty fifth president falsely claims didn’t occur.
It’s a picture now burned into American historical past: 1000’s of armed, flag-wielding Donald Trump supporters swarming and scaling the scaffolding of the USA Capitol, beckoned there by the then-president.
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Because the mob shattered the home windows and stormed the halls of Congress, U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider hid with colleagues on the gallery ground, readying a fuel masks.
4 years to the day, Congress handed by means of metal safety gates and returned to session Monday to once more execute that very same course of. This time, it was to certify President-elect Trump’s return to the White Home.
“We at all times want to recollect at the present time for the fragility of our democracy,” Rep. Schneider, D-Illinois, informed the I-Workforce.
Within the largest investigation in Division of Justice historical past, practically 1600 People have been convicted of crimes related to the Capitol rebellion. Greater than 600 have confronted costs for assault or interfering with regulation enforcement; 53 of these charged traveled to the Capitol from Illinois.
Trump himself confronted federal costs for conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
Along with his 2024 reelection now licensed by the candidate he defeated and the federal costs introduced in opposition to the previous president dropped, Trump has promised sweeping pardons for the convicted insurrectionists he has repeatedly known as patriots.
Gil Soffer, a former federal prosecutor and ABC7’s chief authorized analyst, defined what that would imply.
“The pardons, they do not expunge the document. They do not make it as if individuals who have already been convicted had been by no means convicted, but it surely restores their civil liberties. As to the huge quantity of people that may nonetheless be charged if he, if he presents a stroll, a broad pardon, they’ll by no means be charged,” Soffer informed the I-Workforce.
There are dozens of Illinois defendants, convicted of January 6-related crimes, hoping for pardons. Some who haven’t been charged but are hoping the DOJ will drop their case altogether.
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