DeSantis Slams ‘Excessive Sentences’ Given To J6 Defendants, Floats ‘Pardons and Commutations’ If Elected

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis condemned the “excessive sentences” handed out to some of the defendants who participated in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

DeSantis made the remarks during a Wednesday night interview on Newsmax with Eric Bolling, who asked if the Florida governor would consider pardoning or commuting some of the longer sentences doled out to defendants.

“We will look at all those cases,” DeSantis said. “There’s some examples of people that should not have been prosecuted. They just walked into the Capitol. If they were BLM, they would not have been prosecuted.”

DeSantis continued, “Then there’s other examples of people that probably did commit misconduct, they may have been violent, but to say it’s an act of terrorism when it was basically a protest that devolved into a riot, to do excessive sentences— you can look at, okay maybe they were guilty, but 22 years if other people that did other things got six months?”

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DeSantis concluded, “I think we need a single standard of justice, and so we’ll use pardons and commutations as appropriate to ensure that everyone’s treated equally, and as we know, a lot of people with the BLM riots, they didn’t get prosecuted at all.”

WATCH:

🚨 DeSantis on the Proud Boys sentences and on Enrique Tarrio’s 22-year sentence — calls them “excessive sentences” and promises to look at pardons and commutations for the January 6 defendants.pic.twitter.com/rwfXj7gBAN
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) September 7, 2023