Jan. 6 defense lawyer doubts Trump’s pardon promise: ‘Best to take a wait and see attitude’

A lawyer representing a Jan. 6 defendant says he has doubts about President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to pardon the U.S. Capitol rioters.

Clint Broden, a lawyer for the first Jan. 6 defendant to see his sentence reduced after the Supreme Court ruled this year against the feds’ attempt to use an obstruction charge against the Capitol rioters, said most of the jailed protesters believe they will be pardoned by Mr. Trump.

He added that defense attorneys, like himself, aren’t part of the pardon process.

“I know that many of the Jan. 6 defendants are optimistic that President-elect Trump will pardon most, if not all, of the Jan. 6 defendants. Personally, I do not believe a word that comes out of his mouth, so I think it is best to take a wait and see attitude,” Mr. Broden said in an email to The Washington Times.

Mr. Trump on the campaign trail vowed to free hundreds of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters, who overtook the building while Congress was certifying what he continues to call a rigged 2020 election. The feds have charged more than 1,200 people related to the riot. 

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” which aired Sunday, the president-elect said that on “Day 1” he would start pardoning those in prison.

“These people have been there, how long is it? Three, four years,” he said. “They’ve been in there for years. And they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”

Mr. Broden represented Guy Reffitt, a Texan who was the first Jan. 6 rioter to stand trial. He was sentenced to nearly seven years for storming the Capitol with a handgun. He also carried zip ties, body armor and advanced toward police officers.

He retreated, though, after being pepper-sprayed by an officer.

Last week, District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, reduced Reffitt’s sentence by just seven months after the Supreme Court ruled against the feds on one of the felony charges they used against Jan. 6 defendants.

Federal authorities had charged Jan. 6 defendants with obstructing an official proceeding.

The charge was brought against more than 300 of the roughly 1,200 Jan. 6 defendants.

The high court said the feds stretched the 2002 law too far, which had been passed in the wake of the Enron accounting scandal.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was seen as a victory for hundreds of protesters the Justice Department has charged under the obstruction law.

“We had been optimistic that the sentence reduction would have been greater, given that Mr. Reffitt did not engage in any violence like so many others and did not enter the Capitol building like so many others,” Mr. Broden said.

• The Associated Press wire service contributed to this report.