Until Monday, even some in Donald Trump’s team seemed unconvinced that he would release all those arrested after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“If you committed an act of violence that day, obviously you should not be pardoned,” Vice President J.D. Vance said more than a week ago.

Days later, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, testified before Congress that she agreed with a Democratic senator who asked her to condemn the day’s violence.

“I do not agree with any violence against any police officers,” she said, adding that she was open to separate investigations into more than 1,500 cases related to the riots.

However, Trump took a more comprehensive approach to these cases on his first day in office.

He issued several commutations and blanket pardons, effectively freeing all the rioters and erasing the work of the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history.

The executive order he issued Monday gives the rioters and their supporters nearly everything they have pleaded for, but without the government monetary compensation that some prisoner groups have demanded.

“These people have been eliminated,” Trump said after signing the order. “What they did to these people was appalling. There has been very little like this in the history of our country.”

There were also scenes of celebration outside the Washington, D.C., jail where some of those arrested in connection with the riot were held, and on social media accounts run by the defendants and their supporters.

Mother of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was released on tuesdayposting regular updates about her son.

“Our president gave life to my son and to all J6 people!” Zuny Tarrio wrote this article 22 years after he learned that he would be released from prison. “They can live again! Breathe fresh air again! Feel the sunshine again!”

One of those released from a Washington, D.C., jail on Tuesday was Rachel Powell of Pennsylvania, who was sentenced to more than four years in prison for smashing a Capitol window with an ice pick.

Speaking outside the prison, she told the BBC she would now be home in time to celebrate her son’s birthday and praised Trump for keeping his promise. “He was a bigger blessing to me than I could have ever imagined,” she said.

Some observers, including policy experts and lawyers representing the rioters, were surprised by the scale of the president’s order.

“The overall consensus is that we’re going to see a difference between those who commit acts of violence and those who don’t,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit group that opposes pardons.

“Donald Trump ran for office on a theme of law and order, so seeing him take action to pardon violent criminals is shocking and disturbing,” she said.

Fourteen people convicted of some of the most serious crimes have had their sentences reduced – meaning their crimes will continue to be recorded but they will still be released from prison.

In its latest update, the Justice Department said some 1,583 people had been arrested or convicted of riot-related offences.

More than 600 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police, with about 175 accused of using a weapon or causing serious injury to an officer.

Most of those convicted have completed their sentences or are not in prison at all, but about 250 people still in prison have begun to be released.

Any further investigation – the FBI is still looking for at least 13 suspects and fugitives – appears to be on hold.

Trump’s appointment of Ed Martin as acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., a prosecutor role focused on pursuing riot cases, underscores the thoroughness of his move.

Martin organized a pro-Trump rally the day before the riot and has been a staunch critic of the entire investigation.

On the campaign trail, Trump made various statements about the rioters, sometimes promising blanket pardons but occasionally suggesting he might be inclined to jail some of them.

Supporters of the rioters cheered his blanket pardon on Monday, having long described the sentences against what they called “J6 hostages” and “political prisoners” as politically motivated and harsh.

Norm Pattis, a lawyer representing some of the prisoners, told the BBC Newshour that “the idea that this incident in some way threatened the republic is a stretch,” adding that Confederate rebels fought in the Civil War Later he was pardoned.

“If we can come together as a country after such violence, after people openly taking up arms and killing each other…why four years later, after an afternoon of rioting, are we still charging people with trespassing?” he said.

However, polls show that blanket pardons, including for violent criminals, are unpopular. the latest one AP Survey Shows that only 2 in 10 Americans favor pardoning most of those involved.

Capitol Police officer Winston Pingeon, who was beaten and pepper-sprayed that day, told the NewsHour the pardon was “a slap in the face.”

“It is truly an unprecedented thing to know that these violent felons will go free, having been convicted by juries of their peers for crimes that were widely publicized across the country and around the world,” he said.

In the executive order, Trump explained why he chose to commute the sentences of 14 criminals rather than grant them full pardons. The list includes members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia groups. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was also on the list, was released early Tuesday morning, his attorney said.

Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer, led the Oath Keepers to Washington in the days before the riot. According to trial evidence, the gang hid the guns in a hotel room across the Potomac River in Virginia. Rohde did not enter the Capitol but directed his members from outside and was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2023.

Rhodes’ lawyer James Lee Bright told the BBC that even those close to the case were surprised by the breadth of the clemency action and the speed with which prisoners were released.

“Despite our relationships with people close to the president, they were tight-lipped in the lead-up to the executive order,” Bright said.

Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, received a full pardon, although five other members of his group were also on the list for commutation. Tarrio was not among the crowd that day because he was banned from entering the city. Instead, he interacted with other Proud Boys at a hotel near Baltimore.

The Oath Keepers have largely halted their activities since Rhodes’ arrest, while the Proud Boys have focused on local protests, particularly against transgender activists and story time. The latter also suffers from internal strife between established members and splinter groups that promote white nationalist ideas.

Wendy Via, CEO and co-founder of the Global Project to Counter Hate and Extremism, said the newly released militia members may try to continue their activities, bringing far-right groups that have largely dissipated back into the spotlight.

Dozens of Proud Boys marched around Washington on Monday to celebrate the inauguration.

“Will the Proud Boys start trying to organize centrally again like they did in 2021? That’s going to be a big question,” Ms. Via said.

“The consequence of these pardons is that Trump is sending a message that violence is a viable tool for change as long as it is on his side,” she added.

Additional reporting by Regan Morris and Emma Vardy