Two brothers convicted in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack became the first of the rioters to be freed late Monday after President Trump issued Day 1 pardons to hundreds of the participants.
Andrew and Matthew Valentin, from Stroudsburg, Pa., were released from the Central Detention Facility in Washington, DC, just before midnight, Trump administration officials announced outside the jail — adding that Elon Musk was “the mastermind” behind their sudden freedom.
“The first two January 6 defendants have been released. This is a few hours after President Trump signed his historic pardon,” the White House liaison to the Justice Department, Paul Ingrassia, told reporters, calling the pardon a “monumental moment in our history.”
“This injustice is ending in America tonight and this dark chapter in our country’s history is coming to an end,” Ingrassia added.
Trump, 78, said he issued “approximately 1,500 pardons” at the White House in between inaugural festivities on Monday.
Hours after he was sworn into office, the president signed a document commuting 14 prison sentences and issuing “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
The Justice Department criminally charged 1,583 people in connection with the riot, which broke out after Trump, while serving the final days of his first term, told thousands of supporters that the 2020 election was being “stolen” from him. The rioters stormed the Capitol to try to halt the counting of Electoral College votes that would confirm Joe Biden’s win.
The Valentin brothers were just sentenced on Friday to two and a half years in prison each, according to the Pocono Record.
Matthew Valentin, 32, pleaded guilty in September to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and faced up to eight years in prison, the local outlet reported.
His younger brother, Andrew Valentin, 27, pleaded guilty to one felony count of the same charge as well as one felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He faced up to 28 years behind bars.
Neither entered the Capitol building on Jan. 6, but both were involved in scuffles with law enforcement officers.
