President Donald Trump granted all Jan. 6 defendants pardons and signed several executive orders on his first session in the Oval Office.
Trump pardoned about 1,500 defendants, issued six commutations, and directed the attorney general to dismiss about 450 pending cases against the Capitol rioters calling them “the hostages.”
Through the move, Trump said he ended “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the lost four years” and began “a process of national reconciliation.”
Trump invited the press to the Oval Office hours after celebrating his inauguration. There, he found a letter from Joe Biden and said he would share its content later after reading it himself.
The new commander-in-chief signed a flurry of executive orders including a delay on the TikTok ban, the adjustment of the refugee admission program, and a declaration of a “national emergency” at the US-Mexico border.
