Top Jan. 6 Prosecutor Quits DOJ, Slams Trump’s Pardons As Green Light For Violence

A top federal prosecutor who oversaw the Department of Justice prosecutions of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack has resigned while criticizing the sweeping pardons rolled out by President Donald Trump as a green light for political violence.

“I was shocked, if not stunned, by the breadth of the pardons,” Greg Rosen, who headed the former Capitol Siege section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, told CBS News following his exit last week.

“I think the message that they send is that political violence towards a political goal is acceptable in a modern democratic society,” he added. “Individuals who were duly — and appropriately — convicted of federal crimes ranging in culpability are immediately let loose without any supervision, without any remorse, without any rehabilitation to civil society.”

Gregory Rosen criticized President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters, saying it sends a message “that political violence towards a political goal is acceptable in a modern democratic society.”

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Rosen oversaw some of the roughly 1,500 federal prosecutions related to the Capitol riot, for offenses ranging from trespassing with a dangerous or deadly weapon to assaulting law enforcement.

This year, on Jan. 20, the same day Trump took office, he pardoned all of those convicted while calling their prosecution “a grave national injustice.”

Rosen’s department, the Capitol Siege section, was disbanded by Trump a short time later, and he, along with a handful of other senior federal prosecutors who had brought criminal charges against some of Trump’s allies, were demoted by the DOJ.

Rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

via Associated Press

Rosen plans to head to the private sector next, taking a role with the D.C. firm Rogers Joseph O’Donnell, which offers white-collar criminal defense.

“I would not change a thing about the way we conducted ourselves and the honor in which we brought to the court and to the system,” said Rosen to NBC in defense of the DOJ’s handling of the Jan. 6 cases.

“The concept that these defendants were railroaded or mistreated is belied by the actual facts,” he said. “The reality is every single case was treated with the utmost scrutiny, and every single case required the same level of due process, maximal due process afforded by the U.S. Constitution.”

He added that he hopes the recorded work that he and other prosecutors performed ultimately shapes how history remembers the day’s events.

Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier during the 2021 riot.

via Associated Press

“What I hope the takeaway will be to citizens of this country is that what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, was a national disgrace and then the prosecution that followed reaffirmed the principles of the rule of law and vindicated the rights and the bravery of law enforcement,” he said.

In a post on LinkedIn announcing his leave, Rosen recognized his colleagues and the law enforcement officers who were injured while defending the Capitol during the attack. While quoting Martin Luther King Jr., he shared his belief that the “arc of the moral universe” does bend towards justice, even if it may stretch further for some.

“Democracy is never easy — but the things that matter most rarely are,” he wrote. “Keep honoring that legacy. Keep fighting for the rule of law.”