Hours after being sworn in on Monday (Tuesday, Philippine time), U.S. President Donald Trump granted pardons to more than 1,500 individuals involved in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, including those convicted of assaulting police officers.
Kevin Loftus, one of the pardoned rioters, walked out of a Philadelphia prison and drove overnight to Washington without stopping to change his clothes. Loftus was heading for the Washington prison, which holds 15 Capitol rioters and has become a focal point for Trump supporters convicted in the attack.
The 56-year-old came, he told AFP early Tuesday, to "get everybody out."
He described them as "hostages" and ordered that all pending criminal cases against Capitol riot defendants be dropped.
Loftus, standing in the freezing cold outside the Washington prison, recalled waiting Monday night for Trump to fulfill his promise. He watched footage of Trump signing executive orders, though there was no sound on the TV in his cell.
"I'm thinking to myself, 'Man, I hope our pardons are in there,'" he said.
Trump signed the pardons later that evening, and Loftus received word a few hours afterward. "You're getting out of here. Pack your stuff," he was told. "I was like, 'Woohoo!'"
Loftus was freed by 2 a.m., along with William Sarsfield III, another inmate convicted for his role in the Capitol attack. Sarsfield’s wife drove more than 20 hours from Texas to pick them up, and they headed straight to Washington.
'Camaraderie'
Loftus had been sentenced to three years probation for his presence at the riot. Then, last year, he tried to fly to Russia to fight against Ukraine and was arrested, court documents showed.
"I violated my probation... I was outside of my area," he told AFP.
Which sent him behind bars, until Trump's intervention.
Sarsfield, standing with Loftus outside the Washington prison where many of the Capitol rioters had been held on the chilly Tuesday morning, had been convicted of disturbing the peace on January 6.
He described the "camaraderie" in prison between those who had been convicted of Capitol riot offenses, and said he was "very blessed" to be freed.
Sarsfield, too, wanted to support those still behind bars in Washington, where supporters have been holding a nightly vigil for years.
He was carrying jackets, gloves, and hats for inmates that are getting out.
Other supporters were also at the prison early Tuesday, along with journalists, waiting for any convicted rioters still inside to be freed.
The Capitol assault followed a fiery speech by then-President Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 race.
He then encouraged the crowd to march on Congress.
His pardons have divided public opinion, with supporters expressing jubilation, but many others — including Democrats and police officers who were at the Capitol that day — vehemently condemning them.
A handful of Republican lawmakers expressed opposition, but most were silent, including Vice President JD Vance, who just a week ago said violent offenders should not be pardoned.
Two prominent rioters were among those freed: Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, the head of another such group, the Oath Keepers.
Both Tarrio and Rhodes had been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Rhodes, too, showed up outside the Washington prison later Tuesday, after his release from a facility in Maryland.
"I want my brothers out," he told reporters. "This is a travesty."
At one point on Tuesday, two men did emerge from the Washington prison and the crowd surged toward them, shouting: "Freedom!" and "We love you!"
But the pair rushed silently to a car and disappeared, with a policeman stationed at the prison entrance confirming they had nothing to do with the Capitol assault.
That evening, however, with skies dark and temperatures dropping, the moment many had been waiting for finally came when three Capitol riot detainees exited the prison.
They were immediately embraced by their loved ones.
