Federal prosecutors described David Dempsey as “one of the most violent rioters” during the Jan. 6, 2021, at the US Capitol.
A Van Nuys man used poles, metal rods and broken furniture when he stormed a building, injuring police and other rioters, according to court documents. He “brutally attacked and injured the police” for more than an hour “during one of the most violent moments, in an area of the most violent conflicts,” prosecutors wrote.
In August, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon and breaking a congressional seat.
But on Tuesday, after President Trump offered a massive amnesty or commutation to everyone convicted on January 6 — more than 1,500 people — Dempsey was released, having served less than 3½ years, officials confirmed.
Other defendants on 6 Jan. — whom Trump has called “captives” — have also been released across the country, based on the Justice Department’s referral of Trump’s orders to the Bureau of Prisons.
“People are being released by the minute, it seems,” said Amy Collins, a Washington attorney representing several defendants on January 6, including Dempsey. “The DOJ actually seems to be jumping too quickly.”
Collins declined to comment on Dempsey’s case, but said the parole process — after years of hearings, negotiations and trials — has been “surreal” for defendants and their attorneys alike.
“The fact that Trump kept his word and it has a direct effect on us, that’s a big thing,” he said. “A unique situation.”
The sudden release of so many criminals on January 6th marked the dramatic end to years of hard, expensive work by federal prosecutors to identify, track down, prosecute and see to death the hundreds of Trump loyalists and MAGA hard-liners who stormed the Capitol on. a failed attempt to keep Trump in office illegally after losing to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
By the end of last year, the investigation had become the largest in the history of the Department of Justice, which said it had charged a total of 1,561 people, 590 of them for assaulting, resisting, obstructing or hindering law enforcement. It said about 980 pleaded guilty, 210 others were found guilty during the trial, and 645 were sentenced to at least some time in prison.
The Justice Department under Biden cast the prosecution as an important check on the kind of political violence on display that day. It said 140 police officers were beaten, and millions of rands worth of damage was also reported.
However, Trump never saw it that way. On the campaign trail he repeatedly lied about what happened, downplayed the seriousness of the attack, and suggested that those charged were wrongfully imprisoned as political prisoners. He has promised to grant amnesty, but has given conflicting statements about whether he would pardon every individual accused or a small group.
Even within his own Republican Party, Trump has faced opposition to pardoning the worst offenders, such as those who violently attack police. Earlier this month, now Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that if someone committed violence on Jan. 6, “obviously you shouldn’t be forgiven, and there’s a little gray area there.”
Supporters of President Trump’s January 6 pardon gathered Tuesday at the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington.
(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)
However, within hours of his inauguration, Trump pardoned most of the defendants on Jan. 6, including many convicted of violent crimes. And he had commuted the sentences of others – 14 of the most senior defendants, including military leaders charged with treason – to time served, allowing them to be released from prison.
The orders surprised both sides of politics, and angered liberal leaders and law enforcement officials who were injured in the attack.
In an interview with CNN, former Metropolitan police officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a heart attack after a riot shocked him with a stun gun during the uprising, criticized Trump’s decision to pardon the people who beat him and other police officers. He also criticized those who voted to reinstate Trump even though Trump promised to do so during the campaign.
“I have been betrayed by my country, and I have been betrayed by those who support Donald Trump,” said Fanone, a law enforcement official for 20 years. “Whether you voted for him because he promised this pardon or for other reasons, you knew this was coming – and here we are.”
Sen. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House subcommittee investigating the insurgency, said Trump has given “a literal ‘get out of jail free’ card to the insurgents who have committed horrific violence in his name.”
Schiff said the orders were not just a “forgiveness for their crimes,” but a “consent to do it again.”
Both Fanone and Schiff were among those pardoned by President Biden earlier Monday, not because they were charged, but out of fear that Trump would seek revenge against them by arresting the attackers on January 6.
Among those released from prison were former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes – with Rhodes’ 18-year prison sentence and Tarrio’s 22-year prison sentence, both for conspiracy to treason, quickly ended.
Rhodes’ conviction was overturned. James Lee Bright, his attorney, expressed gratitude for X, writing, “Prayed for pardon, but better than prison while on appeal.”
Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, thanked Trump in a statement, saying his client had received a “full and complete pardon.” Hassan called it a “crucial moment” in Tarrio’s life and “a time of change for our nation.”
Other Californians besides Dempsey were also among those pardoned and released.
Dyke Huish, the defense attorney, said on Tuesday that he is waiting for the parole certificate for his client Russell Taylor, who is accused of being part of the Three Percenters militant group, and coordinating a trip from California to Washington, DC, to stop the Biden group. overcome.
Taylor, who prosecutors say was wearing body armor and carrying a knife and helmet while helping others get past police lines, initially faced a stiff sentence but received a reprieve after agreeing to testify against Alan Hostetter, a former La Habra police chief and gang member. called the DC Brigade.
Taylor was sentenced to six months of house arrest after pleading guilty, and was placed on probation until 2027. Huish said such restrictions are “now over,” but advised his client to wait for the certification.
He said he will still seek the dismissal of Taylor’s charges because amnesty is not the same as dismissal.
Huish declined to make Taylor available for an interview, but said Taylor is “overjoyed that President Trump has kept his promise and that he is now free to go back to his full life without trial.”
Joe Allen, who represented several defendants on January 6, including one from California, said that while he was not surprised that Trump issued the pardons, he was “a little surprised at the scope” of them.
“I thought there were some evildoers [pleaded] guilty or found guilty [of] Violent crime he probably won’t condone, because on the other hand those crimes are police,” said Allen.
He also believes that many people should not have been charged. His clients have “lost a lot” in the process — one Tennessee client missed the birth of her child — and the pardon gives them “their rights,” he said.
But he also questioned whether the pardons of Trump and a bunch of others that Biden made earlier Monday — to officials who investigated Jan. 6 and others who have drawn the ire of Trump and members of his family – could damage perceptions of the American justice system.
“I have to think about what other countries think when they see our leadership behaving in this way,” he said. It’s almost like the embarrassment of a mother and father fighting in front of the children.”
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