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Trump pardons for Jan. 6 rioters expected to include 15 from Maine

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump scale the west wall of the the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Jose Luis Magana
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AP
FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump scale the west wall of the the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Fifteen people connected to Maine are expected to receive clemency for their roles in the assault on the U.S. Capitol four years ago after President Trump signed sweeping pardons for most of the rioters during his first day in office on Monday.

Eleven of the 15 people have already been convicted. They include Christopher Maurer, who was sentenced to a federal prison for assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon, and Kyle Fitzsimons, a Lebanon man who federal prosecutors described as one of the "most violent and aggressive" of the Jan. 6 rioters.

Fitzsimons was convicted and sentenced in 2022 on 11 charges, including assaulting three different police officers during the rioters' attempts to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Photos of Fitzsimons taken during the riots show him bloodied and wearing a butcher coat and fur pelts.

Kyle Fitzsimons, of Lebanon, was convicted in 2022 on 11 charges associated with his role during the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, including assaulting three different police officers.
Federal Bureau of Investigation photo
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FBI photo
Kyle Fitzsimons, of Lebanon, was convicted in 2022 on 11 charges associated with his role during the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, including assaulting three different police officers.

Court records say he had previously left menacing messages for U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, both Democrats. He also reportedly followed state Rep. Michele Meyer, D-Eliot, into a Kittery parking lot in 2019 and parked his truck behind her vehicle so she could not leave. Meyer told the Bangor Daily News in 2021 that he questioned her about a proposed gun control bill.

A federal inmate tracker showed that Fitzsimons was still in a Florida prison as of Tuesday afternoon.

Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree decried the president's clemency for 1,500 rioters, including those convicted of seditious conspiracy.

"They were harming police officers, they were going against the peaceful transfer of power. And now we're just going to say, 'Oh, great, by the stroke of a pen, a president can dismiss the law in this country.' I think that's deeply unsettling," she said in an interview with Maine Public.

Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King was also disturbed, saying it was impossible to square President Trump's inaugural speech highlighting law and order with blanket pardons for those who carried out the Jan. 6 attack on his behalf.

"January 6th was a violent insurrection and a dark moment in our nation’s history," he said in a statement. "While the Constitution promotes the right of the American people to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances — January 6th was neither — it was a clear crime that included direct attacks on individual Capitol police officers, leading to serious injury and death."

Republican Sen. Susan Collins voted to impeach Trump for his role in the riots and co-authored an opinion column in 2021 with New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen calling its leaders terrorists.

"It is jarring and despicable that these rioters, some of whom were draped in Confederate flags and Holocaust denial paraphernalia, defiled one of our most sacred institutions," the two senators wrote. "They terrorized lawmakers, staff, reporters and law enforcement and wreaked havoc on the historic complex, leaving destruction and debris in their wake that Capitol workers are still cleaning up at an undetermined cost to taxpayers. The people who led this insurrection are not patriots or protesters — they are terrorists."

In a statement on Monday, Collins said some of those charged may deserve clemency, but not those engaging in violence.

"While I believe some Americans were caught up in the crowd on January 6 and may well deserve the clemency President Trump has given, there is a great difference between violent crimes and non-violent crimes," she said. "I do not support pardons given to people who engaged in violence on January 6, including assaulting police officers, or breaking windows to get into the Capitol, for example."

Collins' statement also criticized clemency actions taken by President Joe Biden.  

"I also do not agree with President Biden’s recent clemency decisions, including commuting the sentences of convicted murderers, one of whom killed two FBI agents, and preemptively pardoning his son as well as five other members of his own family in the final hours of his Presidency," she said, adding, "This has been a terrible week for our justice system. Violence must never be tolerated in America."

Democratic Congressman Jared Golden, who once called Jan. 6 a dark day in our nation's history and voted to advance impeachment charges against Trump in 2021, had not commented as of Tuesday afternoon.

He later issued a statement lamenting the constant request to comment on Trump’s conduct during his first term. The statement did not address Trump’s pardons.

“President Trump is going to do and say a lot over the next four years,” Golden said. “In his first term, the press demanded an immediate reaction from members to everything Trump did or said. All of us — elected officials and the media — need to avoid falling into this routine again. It was exhausting to everyone involved, including the public, but rarely changed anything.”

He added, “I’m focused on my job and the things I can control.”

Journalist Steve Mistler is Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent. He is based at the State House.