Vice President J.D. Vance played a key role in President Donald Trump’s historic first day in office including the pardoning of most of Jan. 6 protestors, Breitbart News reported on Tuesday.
On Monday, Trump signed dozens of executive orders, among them was granting a “full, complete and unconditional” pardon to roughly 1,500 of the 1,583 defendants charged in the Jan 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill.
“Throughout the transition, J.D. was behind the scenes pushing as hard as possible for broad pardons and commutations of the J6 hostages,” a source familiar with Vance’s role in executing this strategy told the outlet.
Last week Vance drew a distinction between the vast majority of the protestors who were roaming around the Capitol and those that engaged in violence against police.
"I think it's very simple: If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6, and you've had Merrick Garland's Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned," Vance said in a TV interview last week. "If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn't be pardoned,” adding “There’s a little bit of a gray area there, but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law.”
Vance’s press secretary Taylor Van Kirk shot down any attempt to try and divide Trump and Vance saying, “Due to the corrupt process of these prosecutions, President Trump rightly decided to grant a broad pardon to all wrongfully convicted January 6 protestors. Despite the mainstream media’s obsession with January 6, the outgoing administration’s application of presidential pardons for members of the Biden family are far more deserving of additional media scrutiny.”
Moments before leaving office, former President Joe Biden gave blanket preemptive pardons to several controversial figures including, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, and his siblings and their spouses.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.