(WatchDogReport.org) – Former President and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump promised on March 11 that one of the first acts he would do if he wins the presidential election would be to free those who are in jail or prison for being part of the 2021 Capitol riots. While authorities convicted them of crimes in connection to these protests, the Republican leader said they were “wrongfully imprisoned.”
On his Truth Social account, the former commander-in-chief wrote that among the first things he’ll do after becoming president again will be to close the US border and liberate the “January 6 Hostages.” He added that another thing he would do on the first days of his presidency would be to “drill, baby, drill.”
His post came a couple of hours after the Congress Administration Subcommittee on Oversight published a report showing numerous inconsistencies and a lack of corroboration for former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony.
Over the last few months, the Republican leader has been demanding US President Joe Biden and his administration to release the defendants from the Capitol riots. However, his Truth Social post represents the first time since he lost the 2020 presidential election that Trump has expressed this as one of his priorities to set them free on his first days in office.
While Trump and some other Republican leaders have referred to those who are in jail for being part of the Capitol riots as hostages, the White House has said that these declarations were “grotesque.” President Biden and other members of his administration have claimed that those who were imprisoned for these acts wanted to execute a coup and that the January 6 protests were the biggest threat that the US democracy has ever faced.
So far, nearly 500 people have been sentenced to jail or prison, after authorities convicted them over their roles in the Capitol riots. Prosecutors have charged 1,350 people and secured nearly 1,000 convictions.
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