Maybe the American people are starting to forgive Hillary Clinton for calling the most extreme supporters of Donald Trump “deplorables.” Especially now, after a recently re-convicted January 6th rioter who was pardoned by Trump was found to have over 100,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse on his laptop.
Instead of calling them “deplorables,” Trump called them “hostages” and “patriots.”
He gave them a big pardon and let them go. Now it’s been revealed that one of those people had a huge collection of child pornography.
Daniel Tocci was one of the roughly 1,500 January 6th defendants who got Trump’s mass pardon.
It wasn’t until investigators looked into his role in the Capitol attack that they found the child abuse material on his laptop.
When federal prosecutors tried to charge him with child sexual abuse, his lawyer claimed the case should be thrown out.
He said the evidence came from a warrant that Trump claimed should never have been issued.
It’s hard to imagine such an argument being made in our country’s history.
A lawyer argued that Trump’s pardon of a January 6th rioter should protect him from being charged with possessing over 100,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse.
Fortunately, Tocci’s lawyer’s argument didn’t work.
Tocci pleaded guilty and got a four-year prison sentence. But the fact that this argument even happened shows everything we need to know about who Trump chose to protect.
Tocci isn’t alone.
Another January 6th defendant, Andrew Paul Johnson, was just sentenced to life in prison for child sex crimes. Another Capitol rioter is serving life for plotting to kill FBI agents. Another person even argued that Trump’s pardon should protect them from charges related to leaving pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic party buildings on January 5th.
These are Trump’s “hostages.”
These are the people he rushed to pardon on his first day back in office, calling it one of the greatest injustices in American history. These are the people his supporters cheered for.
At the same time, Trump has suggested paying January 6th rioters with tax money.
No payments have been made yet, but he’s thinking about it.
A president who pardons people involved in insurrection, some of whom are child predators or murder plotters, and then even considers giving them money, doesn’t understand what law and order really means.
That’s truly and utterly deplorable.
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