As he promised on the campaign trail, on Day One, President Donald Trump issued pardons to more than 1,500 individuals charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
It was a pleasure to watch scenes of the defendants reuniting with family members and finally gaining their freedom. It was a day for rejoicing.
Tuesday, on the other hand, brought some bad news for Jan. 6 defendants who live in the state of Pennsylvania. CNN’s Marshall Cohen reported that Philadelphia’s far-left District Attorney Larry Krasner is considering state charges against them. Cohen spoke with Krasner on Tuesday and asked him about potential legal hurdles, such as double jeopardy.
Krasner replied, “You can have a state prosecution for conduct that was not fully encompassed in the federal prosecution.”
Cohen reported:
Presidential pardons do not cover state offenses, but there would be significant legal hurdles for any state prosecution to move forward. During the first Trump administration, some efforts to charge allies like Paul Manafort in state court, after his federal prosecution for financial crimes that stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, were rejected by judges because of the Constitution’s protections against double jeopardy.
Krasner said he is examining whether there is a legal path to file state charges against January 6 convicts who assaulted police or conspired with far-right extremist groups, like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. He said his office is reviewing federal charging documents to see what conduct may have been left out — and not covered by the pardons.
“To the extent the federal charging encompasses everything we’re talking about, then this argument probably fails, but I am very doubtful that it encompasses everything that we’re talking about,” Krasner told CNN. “You can have a state prosecution for conduct that was not fully encompassed in the federal prosecution.”
Sounds a little bit like Lavrentiy Beria, Joseph Stalin’s ruthless secret police chief, who famously said, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”
Then Krasner said something extraordinary: “Those of us who actually believe in the rule of law, and actually believe in the law, and actually believe in order — in other words, those of us who are not MAGA — intend to preserve the values, traditions, laws and Constitution of the United States. And that means accountability for the co-conspirators of the 34-time felon president.”
Krasner is one of many Soros-backed district attorneys in the U.S. who take his money and then do his bidding. That is not to say that the progressive DA actually requires much prodding. He’s all about prosecuting patriots and going easy on actual criminals.
His soft on crime mindset has made the city of Philadelphia a far more dangerous place since he was installed in January 2018.
According to an October 2024 report from WalletHub, Philadelphia ranked 174th out of 184 U.S. cities in terms of safety.
In a Tuesday post on X, @PhillyCrimeUpd informed his followers that Krasner dropped charges against “Philly rioters from the Riots of May- June 2020, October 2020, and August 2023.”
Yet, he’s all in for prosecuting Jan. 6 defendants, many of whom have already served four years for minor transgressions.
George Soros has spent millions of dollars on district attorney races in the U.S. for at least a decade. His efforts have contributed significantly to the rising crime rate throughout America, just as he intended.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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