The Department of Justice just filed papers asking a federal court to permanently erase the seditious conspiracy convictions of the men who planned and led the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol.

The same administration created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded "Anti-Weaponization Fund" — described in Trump’s own words as compensation for "supporters who did nothing wrong but protest a rigged election."

Before we examine what that fund means and who it rewards, it is worth pausing to read — carefully and completely — what Donald Trump has actually said about the people who attacked the Capitol, beat 140 police officers, erected gallows outside the building, and chanted for the hanging of the Vice President of the United States.

These are his words. Sourced, verified, and arranged in chronological order. They are not taken out of context. The context makes them worse, not better.

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January 6, 2021 — The Day Of

"We love you. You’re very special. Go home."
— Video message released that afternoon urging the crowd to leave the Capitol. These were his closing words to a mob that had just attacked the seat of American democracy.

"They were doing what they should be doing."
— Reported comment to White House staff as they pleaded with him to call off the mob. Testified to before the January 6th Committee by multiple senior White House officials and confirmed in congressional proceedings.

"Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves it."
— Reported response upon being informed that the crowd was chanting "Hang Mike Pence." Revealed by Representative Liz Cheney during the January 6th Committee’s first public hearing, corroborated by multiple witnesses, and confirmed in Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s book "The Divider." These are reported quotes based on witness accounts, not a recorded transcript — a distinction that matters for accuracy, not for the weight of the testimony behind them.

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January 7, 2021 — The Day After

"These are people that love our country."
— Statement defending some of the January 6th participants, issued one day after the attack on the Capitol.

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March 25, 2021

"There was love in that crowd. They were peaceful people. These were great people."
— Interview characterizing the January 6th mob, ten weeks after the attack.

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September 18, 2021

"They were there because they felt the election was rigged, and they showed up with love in their hearts."
— Remarks defending January 6th supporters at a rally.

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January 29, 2022 — Conroe, Texas Rally

"The people prosecuted over January 6 are being treated unbelievably unfairly."

"If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly."
— These two statements, made at the same rally, were the first explicit public promise of pardons for January 6th defendants. It was a promise he kept — and then extended.

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September 1, 2022

"They were patriots. They were people that love our country."
— Radio interview about January 6th defendants.

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March 13, 2023

"On January 6, they were there to protest a rigged and stolen election. There was such love at that rally."
— Campaign-style interview.

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March 25, 2023

"January 6 was a beautiful day."
— Speech characterizing the day of the attack on the Capitol.

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October 17, 2024 — Campaign Event

The following four statements were made in the same answer at the same campaign event, when asked directly about the Capitol attack:

"There was a lot of love on January 6. That was a day of love."

"Nothing wrong was done at all."

"There were no firearms there. We didn’t have guns. Others had, but we didn’t have guns."
— This claim is factually disputed. Federal prosecutors documented that multiple defendants carried or had access to firearms on January 6th, and one defendant, Dominic Pezzola, was convicted of weapons charges.

"They didn’t come because of me. They came because of the election. They believed the election was rigged, and that’s why they showed up."

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October 2024 — Campaign Remarks

"They are hostages, not prisoners."
— Campaign remarks referring to January 6th defendants serving federal sentences for convictions including seditious conspiracy, assault of law enforcement, and obstruction of an official proceeding.

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Late 2024 — Campaign Rally

"We’re going to be helping the J6 patriots. We’re going to help them out, big league."
— Campaign rally promise of financial and legal support for January 6th defendants.

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January 2025 — First Day Back in Office

Trump issued pardons and commutations to more than 1,500 January 6th defendants — including individuals convicted of seditious conspiracy, assault on law enforcement officers, and destruction of government property. It was the largest single-day clemency action in American history.

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May 18, 2026

"This fund is about ending the weaponization of government against my supporters who did nothing wrong but protest a rigged election."
— Statement describing the new "Anti-Weaponization Fund" — $1.776 billion in taxpayer money, controlled by a commission Trump appoints and can dismiss at will, with no public disclosure of recipients required. Framed explicitly as compensation for supporters including January 6th defendants.

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What This Record Shows

Read in sequence, these statements do not tell the story of a president who was horrified by what happened, who eventually came to understand the gravity of the attack, or who simply chose to be merciful toward people he believed had been unfairly prosecuted.

They tell the story of a man who watched an attack on the United States Capitol in real time, expressed approval of it in private while eventually releasing a tepid video asking the crowd to go home, and then spent the next five years systematically rehabilitating the attackers — calling them patriots, promising them pardons, delivering those pardons, and ultimately creating a taxpayer-funded compensation mechanism to pay them.

One hundred forty law enforcement officers were injured on January 6th, 2021. Some suffered traumatic brain injuries. Some lost fingers. Several died in the days and weeks following the attack. The men who convicted of planning and leading that attack had their sentences commuted in January 2025. In April 2026, the Department of Justice asked a court to vacate those convictions entirely — with prejudice, meaning they can never be recharged.

And on May 18, 2026, the president described the people responsible as having "done nothing wrong but protest a rigged election."

These are his words. All of them. On the record.

The question of what they reveal — about the man who said them and about the political movement that has embraced them without condition — is one every American should be sitting with right now.

Because the January 6th defendants are not abstractions. They are people who beat police officers with flagpoles and fire extinguishers. Who crushed officers in doorways. Who smashed windows and ransacked congressional offices. Who erected gallows and chanted for executions. Whose leaders were convicted by unanimous juries of seditious conspiracy against the United States government.

And the President of the United States called it a beautiful day of love.

Every word of that is documented.

Every word of it is on the record.

And the people responsible are about to be paid.