Congress certifies Trump’s victory with electoral vote count
For some of those hoping for a pardon, their actions on Jan. 6, 2021, were not their first crimes.
A CBS News investigation examined federal sentencing documents to catalog the criminal histories of the Jan. 6 defendants, including those eligible for release, should Trump decide to pardon rioters once he takes office.
This analysis found that at least 159 of the Jan. 6 convicts who have been sentenced have prior criminal records. They include at least 41 people who had been convicted of at least one violent crime prior to their actions on Jan. 6, and at least 5 people with prior records involving violence or threatening behavior toward law enforcement.
Additionally, the CBS News analysis found at least 10 people convicted for their roles on Jan. 6, 2021, also carry past convictions for domestic violence offenses prior to Jan. 6. At least four have faced sex crime allegations.
CBS News’ analysis draws on sentencing memoranda filed by Justice Department prosecutors, each of which included a section discussing the defendant’s criminal history, if any.
In at least 19 of these sentencing memoranda, prosecutors used a common phrase to describe a defendant’s past, noting that Jan. 6 “was not an isolated event in an otherwise law-abiding life.”
Among those with criminal histories prior to the Capitol breach is Peter Schwartz, who prosecutors said “has a jaw-dropping criminal history of 38 prior convictions going back to 1991, several of which involved assaulting or threatening officers or other authority figures.”
“Schwartz’s conduct on January 6, 2021 was not at all out of character for him,” prosecutors wrote. “Instead, the violence he displayed that day was just the most recent episode in a three-decade history of assault, violence, and weapons.”
Schwartz was convicted of nine felonies and two misdemeanors for his role on Jan. 6 — including four counts of felony assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon — and is currently serving a 14-year sentence.
Read more about potential pardons here.