January 6 Pardons

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have been honored to serve in the U.S. Senate for a number of years, and I carry with that service a great number of memories. But there is one that is particularly personal that I will never forget. The year was 2021, and the day was January 6.

The Senate Chamber was filled with Members who were witnessing a meeting required by our Constitution, where the Vice President presided over the Senate where the Presiding Officer is sitting. We gathered here and counted the electoral votes to determine who was the President as a result of the 2020 election. It is a fairly routine undertaking, but there is some solemnity to it because the Constitution requires it.

And I can recall that episode because it was a hectic day. It was the same day that President Trump, leaving the Office because he lost that election in 2020, had called a rally down at the end of the Mall. Thousands of people showed up, and they decided to march on the Capitol at the President's urging and invitation.

It is not unusual in this town or even in this building that protesters would gather to state their purpose, as they are entitled to in a democracy. But this was different. The group that was coming up here was not protesting or gathering for speeches. They had some other intent, and we weren't sure what it was.

I can recall it was a few minutes after 2 in the afternoon on that day. Vice President Pence was sitting where the Presiding Officer is, and in the midst of the proceedings, some group--I believe now that it was the Secret Service--came in and literally physically removed Vice President Pence from where the Presiding Officer is sitting, leaving the chair empty while we were in session. It was a startling moment: What is going on here?

In a few minutes, a representative of the Capitol Police stood at the podium where the Presiding Officer is sitting and made an announcement.

Now, for those that don't know the Capitol Police, they are our security force. They are the ones that keep us safe as we do the duties of our government, and they protect everyone in the building--tourists, staff, everyone. They literally risk their lives for us.

So one of them came and stood before us in uniform and said: There is a group approaching the Capitol, and we ask you all to stay in your seats. This is going to be a safe place here in the Senate Chamber. Others will join you along the walls, and don't worry about it. We are all going to be safe in this building.

It wasn't 10 minutes later that another Capitol policeman came before us and said: Plans have changed. Everyone evacuate the Chamber as quickly as possible.

We went outside and saw through the windows the demonstrators with their signs coming toward the Capitol. Some were beating at the windows, and some were approaching the Capitol from different directions. And we were spirited off to another office building on Capitol Hill where we were protected.

That is a day you will never forget--I will never forget. I have been coming into this building since I was a college student at Georgetown, years ago. This is a special place to me. It is not my office building. It is the U.S. Capitol Building. It carries with it not only a history but a significance as a symbol.

It means something to have a mob take over the Capitol, as happened that day, pushing Members of the House and Senate to hide in broom closets and to leave the building for their own personal safety. I never dreamed that would happen in the United States of America, but I lived it. It happened, and the American people know it happened because the videos are quite graphic. They tell the story of what was going on that day.

At the end of the day, many of us were in different places, watching as C-SPAN broadcast the rioters coming into this Chamber, spiriting, going through my desk--not just mine but many others--posing for pictures in the Presiding Officer's chair. It was a scene that was sad, tragic, infuriating.

I thought to myself, at the time: What if we had just heard a notice that at the Houses of Parliament--the House of Commons in Parliament-- in London, England, the door had been beaten down and a mob had overtaken the Members of Parliament?

You wouldn't believe it. That doesn't happen. This is a civilized country. England--it couldn't happen there.

Well, it didn't. It happened here. As a result of it, the Department of Justice took those people, those violent rioters, seriously and prosecuted almost 1,600 of them of wrongdoing--some of them very serious sentences, some just trespassing. But they were all taken seriously and treated appropriately. They answered under the law for their conduct that fatal day.

So what happened when this new President came to office?

He decided: That isn't what happened at all on January 6. These tourists, these demonstrators, were assaulted by the police.

He ignored the fact that 140 law enforcement officials were injured on that day protecting this building and the people in it. He ignored the fact that three or four people died shortly thereafter because of that experience. He decided that the people who needed our sympathy were the rioters and not the police. And so the President, in one of his first acts of office--President Trump--signed the pardon of some 1,600 individuals.

I have come to the floor to report to you what has happened since, in the few weeks that have passed since that mass pardon by President Trump.

I want to tell you the story, today, of several of the people who were involved in January 6 and pardoned by President Trump. Last week, body camera video was released depicting a traffic-related felony arrest during which a sheriff's deputy fatally shot former January 6 defendant Matthew Huttle--not the first to be shot by a policeman after he was pardoned by President Trump.

The video footage confirmed that there was a struggle during the incident, during which Huttle, a January 6 defendant, raised an object that the sheriff's deputy believed to be a firearm. At the beginning of the traffic stop, Huttle can be seen on video stating:

I just want to let you know that I am a January 6 defendant.

I stormed the Capitol. I'm waiting on my pardon.

Investigators later recovered a loaded 9mm handgun and ammunition in Huttle's vehicle. Huttle was among the 1,600 individuals involved in the January 6 Capitol riot pardoned by President Trump. Huttle had pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds for his role in the insurrection. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison.

Peter Schwartz was sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges that included four counts of assaulting police officers during the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Schwartz was seen on body camera footage spraying officers with pepper spray and wielding a baton, and prosecutors allege he threw the first chair at officers, creating an opening that enabled hundreds of rioters to push back the police lines.

Prior to January 6, Schwartz had amassed criminal convictions in more than four different States for crimes including domestic violence, threatening his girlfriend, and assaulting security officers. One of Schwartz's former girlfriends, Shantelle Holeton, a 43-year-old factory worker who has voted for President Trump three times, she says, recently told CBS News that she fears for her safety now that Schwartz has been pardoned and released. Holeton reports that Schwartz persistently beat her during their months-long relationship until she called the police in July of 2019, alleging that Schwartz was threatening to kill her and her son.

In reacting to Schwartz's involvement in the insurrection, Holeton stated:

He found an opportunity to go and be violent. The man thrives on violence. He thrives on people fearing him.

Another of Schwartz's girlfriends, Shelly Stallings, filed a police report in 2020 alleging that Schwartz bit her forehead and punched her in the head.

Schwartz was one of those who was pardoned by President Trump.

Jeremy Brown, one of the last January 6 defendants remaining behind bars since President Trump's blanket pardon, was released from the Federal correctional institution in Atlanta on Wednesday. Brown had not yet been released because prosecutors did not consider one of his two criminal cases to be related to January 6 and thus covered by the pardon.

However, the Justice Department has since reversed course. In April of 2023, Brown was convicted in Tampa, FL, of possessing a short-barrel rifle, a shotgun, and explosive grenades--explosive grenades--and willful retention of a national defense document, all resulting from a January 6-related law enforcement search of his residence in September of 2021. He was sentenced to 87 months in prison for those charges and released by the pardon of President Trump.

This is a horrible situation, and sadly, tragically, these are people who never should have been pardoned by the President. They attacked the police here in this building. They desecrated this Capitol. They were not the victims. They victimized innocent people who were doing their jobs under the Constitution.

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