WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on his first full day in office Tuesday defended his decision to grant clemency to people convicted of assaulting police officers during the 2021 attack on the Capitol and suggested there could be a place in U.S. politics for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extremist groups whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the U.S.
Trump used his opening hours in his second term to erase the records of more than 200 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting officers at the Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021, and free from prison those convicted of trying to overthrow the government, as he granted reprieve to all 1,500-plus people charged in the insurrection that was sparked after he refused to accept his loss in the 2020 presidential election. At least 140 officers were injured — many beaten, bloodied and crushed by the crowd — when Trump’s supporters tried to overturn Trump’s …