Donald Trump, now the first convicted felon sworn in as commander-in-chief, says he plans to

issue a sweeping series of pardons for defendants charged in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

That's as Joe Biden in one of his final acts as president this morning issued preemptive

pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Millie, and members of the House

Committee that investigated the January 6th attack on the Capitol to prevent potential revenge

by the new Trump administration. For more, let's bring in Mary McCord. He's a former acting

assistant attorney general for national security and now Cheats is at Georgetown Law School. Thanks for

being back with us. We appreciate it.

So when Donald Trump says he plans to issue a sweeping set of pardons for the January 6th rioters,

and he's reportedly planning to commute this prison sentences of hundreds of his supporters

who have been convicted of violent attacks against law enforcement on January 6th. What are the

implications of that? Well, I think it really does damage to our criminal legal system. I mean,

pardons are certainly given by presidents of both parties. We've seen some unusual uses of pardons recently,

which I know we're going to talk about, but when we're talking about people like the January

6 attackers, over 1,200 of which have been convicted, a thousand of those have pled guilty,

another 250 or more have been found guilty after a trial, then we're talking normally in those type of

situations, a pardon is an act of mercy when somebody, you know, the person convicted has changed

their life for the better, you know, served a substantial amount of time, you know, there's been

mitigating circumstances that mean, that make a president feel like it would be unfair

to continue to incarcerate that person.

Sometimes it's because sentencing laws have changed and people sentenced under old regimes

are serving what now seem to be draconian sentences.

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