Former President Donald Trump said at a Saturday rally that, if elected in November, he would move quickly to fix a host of problems plaguing the country, including using executive power to free Jan. 6 “hostages” and ending every single “open border policy of the Biden administration” on day one after taking office.
The former president opened his March 16 rally in Dayton, Ohio, with a standing salute to Jan. 6 “hostages,” while a recording of the Pledge of Allegiance played in the background.
After walking up to the mic amid loud audience chants of “USA! USA!”, the former president praised the “spirit of the hostages,” referring to the people who have been jailed, sometimes without being charged, for their roles in the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“They’ve been treated terribly and very unfairly,” President Trump said. “And we’re going to be working on that soon, on the first day we get into office,” he continued, while calling the Jan. 6 detainees “unbelievable patriots.”
Dozens of Jan. 6 detainees are still languishing in jail awaiting trial, over three years after the Capitol incident.
President Trump has previously vowed to free from prison those involved in the Jan. 6 incident as one of his very first acts upon taking office, if he wins the election in November.
On the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 incident, Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to press ahead with more prosecutions—and to cast the net more widely.
“We have initiated prosecutions and secured convictions across a wide range of criminal conduct on January 6, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to the attack,” he said.
Prosecutors have, to date, secured over 890 convictions in connection to the Jan. 6 incident, with Mr. Garland vowing to press ahead to cast the DOJ dragnet widely.
“As I said before, the Justice Department will hold all January 6 perpetrators, at any level, accountable under the law—whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a speech on Jan. 5.
“We are following the facts and the law where they lead.”
By Tom Ozimek
