Trump's Jan. 6 pardons won't change the 'truth', judge says

President Donald Trump prays after signing a full pardon for Alice Johnson over a non-violent drug offense, in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Evan Vucci/AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s mass pardons for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol “will not change the truth of what happened” in the nation’s capital four years ago, a federal judge wrote Wednesday as she dismissed one of nearly 1,600 cases stemming from the attack by a mob of Trump supporters.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said evidence of the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol is preserved through the “neutral lens” of riot videos, trial transcripts, jury verdicts and judicial opinions.

“Those records are immutable and represent the truth, no matter how the events of January 6 are described by those charged or their allies,” she wrote.

Kollar-Kotelly is one of over 20 judges to handle the hundreds of cases produced by the largest investigation in the Justice Department’s history. She issued her written remarks in an order dismissing the case against Dominic Box, a Georgia man who was among the first group of rioters to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Other judges at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., spoke out against pardons for Capitol rioters before Trump’s second inauguration on Monday, when the Republican president pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of charges in all of the 1,500-plus Capitol riot criminal cases.

District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump nominee, said in November that handing out blanket pardons to Capitol rioters would be “ beyond frustrating and disappointing.” Nichols expressed his criticism during a hearing at which he agreed to postpone a Jan. 6 riot defendant’s trial until after Trump’s return to the White House.

During a hearing last month, District Judge Amit Mehta said it would be “frightening” if Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is pardoned for orchestrating a violent plot to keep Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Rhodes was serving an 18-year sentence when he was released from prison this week.

Box, who was featured in the HBO documentary “Four Hours at the Capitol,” was found guilty of charges including interfering with police during a civil disorder, a felony. The judge convicted Box last year after a “stipulated bench trial,” which meant she decided the case based on facts that both sides agreed to before the trial started.

Box was scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 21. More than 130 other convicted rioters were awaiting sentencing when Trump issued pardons.

Nearly 1,600 people were charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 1,000 of them pleaded guilty. Approximately 250 others were convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 1,100 were sentenced, with more than 700 receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from several days to 22 years.

Over 130 police officers were injured during the riot. At least four officers who were at the Capitol later died by suicide. And Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.

Kollar-Kotelly said the heroism of officers who defended the Capitol “also cannot be altered or ignored.”

“Grossly outnumbered, those law enforcement officers acted valiantly to protect the Members of Congress, their staff, the Vice President and his family, the integrity of the Capitol grounds, and the Capitol Building-our symbol of liberty and a symbol of democratic rule around the world,” she wrote.

President Bill Clinton nominated Kollar-Kotelly, who has served on the bench since 1997.

Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press