Among President Donald Trump’s first actions after being inaugurated Monday for his second term was to issue pardons or commutations for people accused/convicted in crimes connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
In the executive action, Trump called the J6 prosecutions a “grave national injustice,” before specifically listing about a dozen people whose sentences were commuted. Among them was Thomas Caldwell, a Navy veteran from Berryville — about 10 miles east of Winchester.
Caldwell pleaded not guilty to a variety of charges and was tried alongside members of the Oath Keepers, a militaristic antigovernment group founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes (who also received a commuted sentence Monday). Caldwell maintained that he was not a member of the organization, but instead “allied” with them.
In November 2022, he was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and tampering with documents or proceedings, according to an NPR database. On Jan. 10, Caldwell was sentenced to time served and fined $100; the obstruction conviction was dismissed.
More than 1,500 people had been either convicted or accused of crimes around J6. Last week, Nathan Bordeaux, a 40-year-old from Floyd, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.
Sen. Mark Warner said the pardons send a “dangerous message that violence has no consequences” in a Monday post on X. In a statement released Tuesday, Sen. Tim Kaine called the pardons "deeply offensive" and "a slap in the face of the law enforcement community—including five Virginians who died after protecting the Capitol that day—the Constitution, the rule of law, and our democracy.”
Eighty-seven Virginia residents in total were charged in connection to the Capitol riot, which resulted in the immediate deaths of four people and the rest of more than 1,500. (The deaths of five law enforcement officials in the aftermath were linked back to the riot.)
While campaigning during the 2024 election — and after winning in November — Trump repeatedly discussed the legal issues of people convicted or accused of J6 crimes. In an interview published Dec. 12 in Time magazine, Trump said he planned to issue the pardons in the “first nine minutes” of his presidency.
The executive action also dismissed with prejudice any pending indictments, meaning those charges can never be brought again.
