After being pardoned by Trump, Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes did a kind of victory dance, with Tarrio calling into Alex Jones — why is that numbskull still on the air — and Rhodes walking up to the Capitol to talk with (at least one) Republican representative.
Oh good one!
In making the decision to pardon Tarrio and Rhodes in conjunction with the other 1500 supporters that he pardoned, Trump — who has a notoriously short attention span — reportedly said “fuck it, release them all!” instead of making any individualized decisions.
The response maybe wasn’t quite what Trump was anticipating. Many law enforcement organizations, including the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police — both of whom had endorsed Trump during the election — released statements that the decision “undermines the rule of law” and “devalues the sacrifices made by officers during the Capitol attack.”
No shit.
The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers certainly were encouraged by the pardons, and maybe Trump thinks that they will now function as his private militia.
But there is one wrinkle in the fabric that they may not have considered: civil lawsuits. Yeah, they’ve been pardoned for their federal convictions, but all of the officers who were injured in the Capitol attack and who know who attacked them (or even who, in the case of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were part of groups who conspired to organize the attacks) can be sued in civil court.
For a lot of money.
There are realms and realms and realms of evidence already available to them, resulting from the various convictions that have already been obtained. The documentation is already there. And they don’t need to meet the “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” standard, they only need to meet the “preponderance of the evidence” standard.
So if I were the victims I’d be gathering up some good lawyers and prepare to file a bunch of civil suits and class actions, and for Tarrio, Rhodes and some of the other pardonees, prepare to just rain on their parade.
