During the entire last year of Donald Trump’s campaign, he went on and on about how all of the “illegals” that “Kamala released” were running around America murdering, raping, and dealing drugs “at levels nobody’s ever seen before.”
I’m not sure how Kamala released anyone. In fact, I’m not sure how criminals were “released” at all. If he was talking about undocumented immigrants, there were none released that were known to be criminals.
You know who DID release a bunch of criminals, though? That guy who took office on the 20th. He was so intent on releasing criminals, in fact, that he did it as one of his very first official acts.
Donald Trump signed, on day one, a blanket pardon for around 1,500 convicted rioters from January 6, 2021. Some of them had already served their sentences, like Robert Keith Packer, seen here in his novelty concentration camp sweatshirt on the day of the insurrection:
Never forget how important it was to Donald Trump to pardon this man immediately. Never forget that according to court records, the back of this sweatshirt says “STAFF” and underneath it he’s wearing an SS t-shirt. Never forget. pic.twitter.com/AZg8RCvftC [1]
— Drewbear (@infuzi0n) January 28, 2025 [2]
Now, unlike all those horrible, dangerous, 100% MS-13 members that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris let joyride in Air Force One as a treat, Trump’s pardoned criminals aren’t dangerous in any way. They’re all great big teddy bears.
Well, except for Daniel Charles Ball, who threw an explosive device at the cops in a tunnel at the Capitol. He was arrested two days after he was pardoned, on gun charges. And except for Matthew Huttle, who didn’t assault any police officers at the Capitol like his Uncle Dale that he went there with. Huttle was killed by a deputy while resisting arrest in Indiana on Sunday.
Oh, and except for Andrew Taake. He’s the latest Capitol terrorist on law enforcement’s radar again after being pardoned. I wish I could say that gun charges and resisting arrest were the most heinous things these good ol’ boys were guilty of after Daddy Trump wiped their slate clean, but Taake gets a special place in my “definitely never forget” file of bad men that Trump put back on the street after they committed treason against America.
He’s wanted in Texas as we speak for online solicitation of a minor. You know, one of those To Catch a Predator dirtbags.
I know you can’t feel how long a pause I just took before writing the next sentence, but it’s impossible to type with your hands balled up into fists. Why am I so mad? Well, because he didn’t just pardon a really bad guy, he may have accidentally pardoned him for the solicitation charge as well.
The sex crime charge was from 2016. He was out on bail for that crime when he WENT to the Capitol, in case you still had any doubts about the caliber of people that showed up to support Donald Trump that fateful day. Excellent decision-makers, these people.
While at the Capitol, the events that Taake was convicted of included using bear spray and a “whip-like weapon” against the Capitol police, in addition to the standard “entering and remaining in” the Capitol charges that literally everyone got.
His arrest for the Capitol insurrection came after he bragged about his actions on an online dating app. More wise choices from Taake, as you can see. Also, ew. And I guarantee that was a violation of his bail if he’s wanted on a charge for an ONLINE sex crime.
Still, they can get him for it, right? Maybe. It’s a definite maybe.
In Trump’s pardon order, right after he gets a few high profile ones whose sentences he merely commuted (rather than granting them full pardons), he goes on to the other 1,500 people:
(b) grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021
The troubling word there, the one I think Taake’s lawyer will pounce on, is “of.” See, if it had said “for” instead there, there would be no doubt about what it meant. It would be A pardon FOR the specific crimes at or near the Capitol blah blah blah.
The way it’s phrased, it sounds like the people who fit a certain description are all granted unconditional pardons. Taake fits the description of “individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near” etc.
So is he just… pardoned now, of whatever he was charged with or convicted of before he became a person that description fits?
I guess we’ll find out.