1,500 Jan. 6 Pardons Reignite Debate Over Trump's Clemency Power

A Guardian opinion column published Nov. 1 by columnist James Rosen argues that the presidential pardon power written into the Constitution in 1787 has been misused by President Donald Trump, pointing first to his pardoning of more than 1,500 people who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the piece.

Rosen writes that the pardons came "on the first day of his second term" and sit, in his assessment, "at the top" of a list of actions he says historians will scrutinize. The column, labeled Opinion by the Guardian, does not include a response from the White House or from Trump, and it does not cite any on-the-record defense of the Jan. 6 clemency grants or of the broader pardon practices it describes.

How many Jan. 6 defendants did Trump pardon?

According to the column, Trump pardoned "more than 1,500 insurrectionists" who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol, issuing the clemency on the first day of his second term. The piece does not break down how many of those pardons covered individuals convicted of violent offenses versus lesser charges, and HTT News could not independently verify the figure beyond the Guardian's reporting.

What is the reported 'pardons market'?

Rosen writes that Trump has, more recently, "overseen a robust pardons market in which friends or relatives of criminals offer to pay millions for presidential clemency," attributing the characterization to "astonishing accounts" by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and 60 Minutes. The Guardian column does not provide direct links to those outlets' reporting, and no dollar figures, case names or on-the-record sources from those accounts appear in the material reviewed by HTT News.

What did George Mason warn about pardon power in 1787?

The column traces the current debate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where delegate George Mason cautioned fellow framers — among them George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton — against giving a future president unchecked clemency authority. Mason argued against granting the president "power of pardoning because he may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself," the column quotes him as saying.

Rosen sets the warning against the physical conditions of the convention itself: the hall's windows were kept closed against eavesdroppers through Philadelphia's summer heat, delegates sweltered in "elaborate attire," and of the 55 men who came to the gathering, 16 had already left for home by the time Mason spoke, driven off, in the column's telling, by the heat and humidity. Washington, who would not become the nation's first president for another 19 months, presided over the session as Mason made his case, according to the piece.

Why does the column connect this to the 2026 midterms?

Rosen frames the Jan. 6 pardons and the alleged clemency-for-payment reporting as live political issues heading into this year's midterm elections, writing that "voters have not forgotten January 6." The column places the pardon power at the top of a longer list of grievances it raises against the administration, including its posture toward Ukraine, deportations of US citizens, and US withdrawal from climate and Iranian nuclear agreements — claims the piece does not substantiate with separate citations beyond its own assertions.

Because the source is an opinion column rather than a news report, it advances a single argument without presenting a defense of the pardons from the administration or from legal scholars who favor broad executive clemency authority. Readers seeking the administration's position, or a rebuttal grounded in the constitutional text's framers' intent, will not find it in the material reviewed.

Pardon power, by the numbers

• More than 1,500: Jan. 6 Capitol defendants pardoned by Trump on his first day back in office, per the column.
• 55 and 16: Delegates who attended the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and the number who had already left Philadelphia by the time George Mason raised his pardon-power objection, according to the piece.

Glossary

• Pardon power: The constitutional authority, under Article II, allowing a sitting US president to forgive federal crimes, discussed in the column as the mechanism at issue.
• Constitutional Convention: The 1787 Philadelphia gathering of delegates, including Mason, Washington, Madison, Franklin and Hamilton, that drafted the US Constitution.
• Clemency: A broader term covering pardons, commutations and reprieves — the category of presidential action the column says has been monetized.

The Guardian column can be read in full at theguardian.com.