When Donald Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 rioters who stormed the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election, my first thought turned to what roles in society they will assume after being released.
Specifically, I wondered about the many veterans, active–duty military members and police officers who were found to have participated in the deadly pro-Trump riot, who have effectively been given the green light by Trump to return to their careers in the armed services and law enforcement, if they so choose. It’s a point George Washington University extremism expert Luke Baumgartner made in recent comments to Military.com.
“Now that some of these folks and the more prominent leaders within the Oath Keepers and other militias are out and no longer under the jurisdiction of federal law enforcement, I think that it will probably provide them an opportunity to reconstitute,” he said.
Several active-duty members who stormed the Capitol have already returned to their military jobs. And others could join them. After all, Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary nominee, has already signaled his disinterest in rooting out political extremism in the military. That could make it far easier for military members with fresh pardons to rejoin the ranks. And pardoned insurrectionists who were working as police officers when they stormed the Capitol could also return to their jobs now that their records have been expunged.
Even if they don’t want to take official government roles in the military or their local police force, pardoned rioters could just as easily join extremist militias, which have been known to recruit veterans and others with military experience.
Last April, I wrote about the disturbing trend of Republican leaders looking to civilian-led militias to help with law enforcement, which I suspect will only ramp up in the months and years ahead.
Extremism expert Timothy Snyder warned about this on Monday’s episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Snyder, who authored the book “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” said Trump’s pardons may lead to some militia groups assuming pseudo-governmental roles to aid some of the Trump administration’s policies, like immigration enforcement.
“The next step is that you’re going to see, I’m afraid, these people be deputized for tasks like deportation. Or these people to be regularized — normalized — as part of the way we get used to violence being deployed in our country,” he said. “And then we’re no longer pretending that we’re a country of law.”
We’re already seeing militia groups prepare for the pseudo-governmental roles Snyder spoke of. In November, Wired reported that militia groups, including some with veterans as members, rushed to the border in anticipation of aiding Trump’s mass deportation efforts. These are the kinds of groups that could seek to enlist pardoned Capitol rioters, many of whom bonded together in the so-called patriot wing of the jail in Washington, D.C., where they were held.
Watch Snyder’s warning below:
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.