Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 riot help more than 50 defendants from Illinois

More than 50 Donald Trump supporters from Illinois will get their federal rap sheets wiped clean after the new president’s Day 1 signing of about 1,500 pardons related to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Dozens of Trump’s supporters from the Chicago area and other parts of the state ended up in the dragnet during the U.S. Justice Department’s enormous, four-year investigation into the failed effort to overturn Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.

A Chicago Sun-Times review of federal court records found 43 of the 53 defendants from Illinois had been convicted and sentenced in cases stemming from the Capitol insurrection by the time Trump took office Monday and carried out his campaign promise to help people he described as “hostages” of politicized federal law-enforcement.

The lawyer for one of the defendants — former Chicago Police Officer Karol J. Chwiesiuk — welcomed Trump’s decision as “the right thing to do.”

For the full story, see chicago.suntimes.com.