Incoming Vice President JD Vance and outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray shared their thoughts on President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to pardon those convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. The interviews come just one week before Trump’s inauguration.
Vance addresses Trump’s plans to pardon Jan. 6 convictions
In his first interview since leaving the Senate, Vance addressed Trump’s plans to pardon those convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I think it’s very simple,” Vance told Fox News Sunday. “Look, if you protested peacefully on January the 6th and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned. And there’s a little bit of a gray area there but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law and there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that.”
Vance also spoke of executive orders concerning illegal immigration on day one of the Trump administration and of being hopeful there soon will be a cease-fire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas.
After Vance’s interview aired on Fox, the vice president-elect responded to a critic on X saying Trump will be looking at each case concerning Jan. 6 individually.
Wray addresses Trump’s plans to pardon, decision to resign
On 60 Minutes, FBI Director Christopher Wray discussed Trump’s plans to pardon many of the roughly 1,500 people charged with federal crimes in the Jan. 6 riots.
“I do think it’s important to step back and remember that we’re talking about hundreds of people who are convicted, most of them pled guilty of serious federal crimes,” Wray said. “Heck, I think 170 or so of them pled guilty to assaulting law enforcement, dozens of them with dangerous or deadly weapons. And there’s a whole bunch that were convicted of seditious conspiracy.”
Wray also explained his decision to step down three years before the end of his 10-year term. Trump appointed Wray in 2017, during his first administration.
The FBI director then oversaw investigations into Trump, as well as President Joe Biden and Biden’s son Hunter. Trump intends to replace Wray with former aide Kash Patel.
“Well, my decision to retire from the FBI, I have to tell you it was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” Wray said. “I care deeply, deeply about the FBI, about our mission and, in particular, about our people.”
He continued, “But the president-elect had made clear that he intended to make a change, and the law is that, that is something he is able to do for any reason or no reason at all. My conclusion was that the thing that was best for the Bureau was to try to do this in an orderly way, to not thrust the FBI deeper into the fray.”
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