Newly Republican presciently candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla) suggested that if elected, he would potentially pardon those involved in the January 6 Capitol Hill protests— including his 2024 rival, former President Trump.
DeSantis said that one day one of his possible first days in office, he would assemble a team that would review cases and pardons those he felt were unfairly targeted by the weaponization of Democrats. The governor accused Biden-run agencies of using their power to prosecute conservatives unfairly.
"We will use the pardon power — and I will do that at the front end," the Republican said. "The DOJ and FBI have been weaponized. We see that. We see it in various contexts, some of which you mentioned. Some of it is the FBI going after parents going to school board meetings. Some of it's how they treat a pro-life demonstrator, how they don't go after people that are attacking pro-lifers. And so what I'm going to do is — I'm going to do on day one — I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases, who are people who are victims of weaponization or political targeting. We will be aggressive at issuing pardons."
However, DeSantis admitted that some of them may have violated the law— even Trump.
Still, he suggested that his plan included the former president saying that "any example of disfavored treatment based on politics or weaponization would be included in that review, no matter how small or how big."
DeSantis said that the pardons would be done on a case-by-case basis, adding that they would find examples where the government's been weaponized against disfavored groups.
Trump vowed to also pardon a "large portion" of the people convicted of federal offenses for their roles in the Capitol protests.
"I can't say for every single one because a couple of them, probably they got out of control," Trump said.
Other Republican presidential candidates, such as Vivek Ramaswamy, also promised to pardon on his first day in office should he be elected.