Senior Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), instead deferred the decision to Trump, who has said he plans to issue pardons to many of the nearly 1,600 people who have faced charges.

“The pardon authority is one that the president exercises, and we’ve seen President Biden obviously use it more broadly than any president in history, so it’s going to be a call the president has to make,” Thune said. “My assumption is that they’ll look at these on a case-by-case basis.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who voted to convict Trump in 2021 after the president-elect was impeached on a charge of “incitement of insurrection,” said he did not know enough about Trump’s plan to offer an opinion at this stage.

“I’d like to know — it’s a statement without detail, and so it’s hard for me to give thoughts — who in particular and on what basis  — and so until you see that, it’s hard to have a thought [on the pardons],” Cassidy said.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), likewise, declined to say he supported Trump’s Jan. 6 clemency plans, instead saying “it’s his prerogative.”

The Republicans’ reluctance to show support for the pardons came moments after they participated in the 2024 election certification, a typically unremarkable ceremony that was disrupted during the last election’s certification after a riotous mob of thousands breached restricted areas of the Capitol grounds.

In the years that have followed, the Department of Justice has charged 1,583 defendants in connection with the incident, and the majority of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted in trials. More than 600 were charged with assaulting or obstructing police officers.

Hundreds faced charges of using or carrying a deadly weapon or destroying or stealing government property. Defendants have seen penalties of anywhere from probation to days or months in prison. In rare cases, they have been sentenced to a decade or more in prison for having more elaborate roles in the riot planning process.

Enrique Tarrio, who received the longest sentence at 22 years, is a former Proud Boys leader who was convicted by a jury of seditious conspiracy for arranging his organization’s members to attend the breach, which left dozens of officers injured. Tarrio was not in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021, but his depth of planning for the riot made him one of the most culpable for it, a jury found. At one point as the mob took over the Capitol, he messaged his members, “Don’t f***ing leave.”

Tarrio’s lawyer asked Trump in a letter on Monday for his client to receive a “full and complete Presidential Pardon.” Other defendants and defense attorneys rallied together at a conference on Monday and called for every single defendant to receive Trump’s clemency. The president has not yet revealed whom he plans to pardon or how many will receive one.

In 2021, Trump had spoken at a “stop the steal” rally down the street just before the breach, declaring the election “rigged” and asserting that he was the rightful winner of it. He also told his supporters to remain peaceful as they protested the election results and later condemned the violence of the day. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who served on the House committee that investigated Jan. 6, lamented Trump’s actions on Monday.

“It is remarkable that the man who watched this attack unfold from the safety of the White House dining room and refused to lift a finger to stop it will be back in the White House dining room and is considering pardoning the people that attacked those officers and threatened this institution,” Schiff said.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) denounced Trump’s pardon plans from the Senate floor, saying it served to “whitewash” the incident.

“It is shamefully, utterly outrageous that the president is considering pardons for these rioters,” Schumer said.

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Trump’s most vocal supporters have been more encouraging of clemency for Jan. 6 participants. Unlike some of his colleagues, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said he believed “100%” that they should be pardoned, but he did not specify which ones.

“I think that should be one of the first things he does, even if he doesn’t do that at the inauguration,” Tuberville said, adding that “there might be a few” who do not receive pardons.

Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.