At some of the campaign rallies, Donald Trump played a song in which about twenty men convicted of participating in the assault on the Capitol sing the national anthem. The song, called “Justice for All,” was produced with the help of Kash Patelwhom the Republican has now nominated as the future director of the FBI. The signing of Patel, 59, for the new Trump administration has revived the hopes of the Capitol attackers of receiving the promised presidential pardon from Trump.
Through his nonprofit, Kash Foundation, Patel has been helping those convicted of the Capitol assault. The purpose of the foundation is to offer financial aid to defend “defamed American citizens.” The harmony with the assailants is such that Patel himself has promoted the conspiracy theory known as “fedsurrection”, in which it is argued that January 6 was instigated by secret FBI agents to discredit the Make America Great Again movement. (MAGA).
Patel has also flirted with QAnon conspiracy theories and whose followers participated in the assault on the Capitol. Some of those convicted of the attack were declared followers of the movement, as was the case of Jacob Chanslye, the “QAnon shaman,” who became known for breaking into the building bare-chested and wearing a bison hat with horns.
The movement against democratic institutions in the United States has long seen the FBI as its main enemy. This idea has already gained strength with the pandemic and with the role that the agency played in the investigations into the two federal cases that were charged to the now president-elect. Both cases have already been dismissed due to the impossibility of continuing with the judicial process once Trump takes office on January 20.
Although the position must still be ratified by the Senate, the decision to put a supporter like Patel in charge of the FBI is seen as a wink of complicity on the part of Trump. In the same way that the tycoon is distributing the charges as retribution to his most loyal soldiers, the condemned expect the president-elect to apply the same logic with them.
“I’m inclined to forgive most of them,” Trump said at a 2023 CNN event about those convicted of the Capitol assault. This week, after President Joe Biden broke his promise and pardoned his son Hunter, Trump published a post on his Truth Social network in reference to the assailants. “Does Joe’s pardon for Hunter include the January 6th hostages, who have been in prison for years? “This is an abuse and a failure of justice,” the magnate wrote.
The reality is that Trump has not given many details of how he would pardon the more than 1,500 Capitol attackers who have been convicted. Last July, the Republican stated that “if they are innocent, I will pardon them,” while his campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt assured that Trump would decide the cases “one by one” when it came to pardoning them.
Trump’s post-election silence on pardons until now had sparked nervousness within the January 6th movement. “Donald Trump, everyone is watching now. If you betray your followers you will not be able to take it back. End the J6 judicial processes [6 de enero, por sus siglas en inglés] from day one. Release the J6 prisoners on the first day,” Philip Anderson, a prominent activist in the movement to pardon the attackers, tweeted last week.
Pursue “corruption”
When Trump published in Truth that he was nominating Patel for the position, the MAGA orbit and activists of the J6 (January 6) movement celebrated the selection. “The first step to achieving a REAL investigation into J6 is to regain control of the investigative agencies. Kash to the FBI is a sign,” tweeted Suzzanne Monk, a prominent lawyer for the movement.
Advocates of pardons for the Capitol stormers believe that if Patel takes control of the agency, he will purge the perpetrators of the alleged plots to harm Trump, including those who masterminded the assault on the Capitol as a false flag act. Patel’s skepticism with the FBI is part of an entire worldview that aligns with the Trumpist ideology of the “enemy within” and the war against the deep state.
In 2023, Patel published the book “Government Gangsters” in which he created his own blacklist with some sixty members of the Administration whom he considered “members of the executive branch of the deep State.” The compilation was praised by Trump, who saw the book as a “brilliant map” to help him “take back the White House and get these gangsters out of the Government.”
If Patel manages to obtain Senate certification, he has promised to carry out a total remodeling of the agency that threatens to turn it into a tool at the tycoon’s service. In an interview, he stated that he wanted to close the FBI headquarters in Washington and reduce its power. Likewise, he has promised to find the “conspiracists” within the Government and the media and put an end to them.
Although the FBI director cannot lead or open investigations, it would be enough for the future attorney general, Pam Bondi, to file charges. Bondi is another figure loyal to Trump, although unlike his first choice, Matt Gaetz, he has remained silent all this time about the Capitol attackers.
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