President-elect Donald Trump called out President Joe Biden for pardoning his son from prosecution while "J-6 Hostages" remain imprisoned.
Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Sunday, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.
"Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!" Trump posted Sunday night on Truth Social.
After Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, a pair of Jan. 6 misdemeanor cases – stemming from the 2021 Capitol attack – finally ticketed for trial years later were put on hold by federal judges anticipating the president-elect's inauguration could lead to pardons for non-violent protesters.
Before the 2024 Republican primary, Trump called on Joe Biden "to release the J6 hostages."
"They've suffered enough," Trump said Jan. 6, 2024, during a campaign rally. "They have to release them. I call them hostages ... Release the J-6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe."
After officially winning the GOP nomination and scoring a Supreme Court victory in a ruling in favor of a Jan. 6 protester against obstruction of justice charges for a "peaceful protest," Trump repeated his call for Joe Biden to release the Jan. 6 "hostages."
"The Supreme Court ruled that Biden's Department of Justice has wrongly prosecuted hundreds of Americans for peacefully protesting on Jan. 6," Trump told a June 28 rally in Chesapeake, Virginia.
"Those people have been treated so people have been treated so badly, especially when you compare them with people that ripped apart and killed people in Portland and in Seattle and in other places. They have been treated so badly.
"So we're asking, based on the decision, they should immediately be released," Trump told the crowd. "Immediately release the J6 hostages."