Federal prosecutors described David Dempsey as “one of the most violent rioters” during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The Van Nuys man used flagpoles, metal crutches and broken pieces of furniture as he stormed the building, injuring both police and other rioters, according to court documents. He “savagely attacked and injured police officers for more than an hour,” prosecutors wrote, “during one of the most violent periods of time, at the scene of the most violent confrontations.”
In August, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon and violating the seat of Congress.
But on Tuesday, after President Trump granted sweeping pardons or commutations to everyone convicted of the Jan. 6 crimes — more than 1,500 people — Dempsey was released after serving less than three and a half years, officials confirmed.
Other Jan. 6 defendants — whom Trump referred to as “hostages” — were also released across the country based on Justice Department referrals of Trump’s orders to the Bureau of Prisons.
“It seems like people are being released by the minute,” said Amy Collins, a Washington-based attorney who represents several of the Jan. 6 defendants, including Dempsey. “The DOJ actually seems to get on board pretty quickly.”
Collins declined to comment on Dempsey's case, but said the pardon process — after years of litigation, negotiations and trials — had been “surreal” for the defendants and their lawyers alike.
“The fact that Trump kept his word and had a direct result in our case is a pretty big deal,” she said. “It’s such a unique situation.”
The sudden release of so many criminals on Jan. 6 marked a surprising end to years of grueling and costly work by federal prosecutors to identify, track down, prosecute and convict hundreds of Trump loyalists and MAGA hardliners who stormed and attacked the Capitol a failed attempt to illegitimately keep Trump in power after he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
As of late last year, the investigation was the largest in the history of the Justice Department, which said it had charged a total of 1,561 people, 590 of them for assaulting, resisting, obstructing or obstructing law enforcement officers. It said nearly 980 had pleaded guilty, 210 more had been found guilty in court and 645 had been sentenced to at least some time behind bars.
The Biden Justice Department viewed the law enforcement efforts as crucial evidence of the kind of political violence on display that day. It said 140 police officers were attacked and millions of dollars in damage was caused.
However, Trump never saw it that way. During the election campaign, he repeatedly lied, downplayed the seriousness of the attack and suggested that the defendants were being unfairly held as political prisoners. He promised to issue pardons but gave conflicting statements about whether he would pardon all defendants or a narrower cohort.
Even within his own Republican Party, Trump faced resistance to pardoning the worst offenders, such as those who violently attacked police officers. Earlier this month, current Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that if someone committed violence on Jan. 6, “of course you shouldn't be pardoned, and there's a little bit of a gray area there.”
Supporters of President Trump's Jan. 6 pardon gather at the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington on Tuesday.
(Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press)
And yet, within hours of taking office, Trump had pardoned the vast majority of those charged on January 6, including many convicted of violent crimes. And he had commuted the sentences of the rest – 14 of the most prominent defendants, including militia leaders charged with seditious conspiracy against the government – to time served, allowing them to be released from prison as well.
The orders were met with surprise on both sides of the political spectrum and outrage from liberal leaders and law enforcement officials who were injured in the attack.
In one Interview on CNNFormer Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a heart attack after a rioter shocked him with a stun gun during the insurrection, criticized Trump's decision to pardon the people who attacked him and other officers. He also criticized those who voted to return Trump to office, even though Trump promised to do just that during the campaign.
“I was betrayed by my country, and I was betrayed by those who supported Donald Trump,” said Fanone, a 20-year police officer. “Whether you voted for him because he promised these pardons or for some other reason, you knew this was coming — and here we are.”
Sen. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House committee that investigated the insurrection, said Trump gave “a literal 'get out of jail free card'” to rioters who committed horrific violence in his name .
Schiff said the orders were not “just forgiveness of their crimes” but “a permission structure to do it again.”
Both Fanone and Schiff were among those pardoned by President Biden early Monday, not because they had been charged with a crime but out of fear that Trump would seek retaliation against them for holding the Jan. 6 attackers accountable had.
Among those released from prison were former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes – with Rhodes' 18-year sentence and Tarrio's 22-year sentence, both for seditious conspiracy, ended immediately.
Rhodes' sentence was commuted. James Lee Bright, his lawyer, thanked X and wrote: “Prayed for a pardon but better than prison while he appeals.”
Nayib Hassan, Tarrio's lawyer, thanked Trump in a statement and said his client had received a “full and complete pardon.” Hassan called it a “pivotal moment” in Tarrio’s life and “a turning point for our nation.”
In addition to Dempsey, other Californians were among those pardoned and released.
Dyke Huish, a defense attorney, said Tuesday that he was awaiting a pardon certificate for his client Russell Taylor, who was accused of being part of the Three Percenters militia group and coordinating trips from California to Washington, D.C. to block Biden's inauguration win .
Taylor, who prosecutors said wore body armor and carried a knife and hatchet as he helped others rush police lines, initially faced a much harsher sentence but received leniency after agreeing to fight Alan Hostetter, a former police chief of La Habra and a member of the police so-called DC Brigade, testified.
Taylor was sentenced to six months of house arrest after pleading guilty and probation that was set to end in 2027. Huish said such restrictions were “now over” but he had advised his client to wait for the certificate.
He said he would still seek dismissal of the charges against Taylor because a pardon is not the same as expulsion.
Huish declined to make Taylor available for an interview but said Taylor was “very happy that President Trump kept his promise and that he is now free to return to his full life without the court granting him parole.” imposed.”
Joe Allen, who represented several defendants on Jan. 6, including one from California, said that while he wasn't surprised that Trump had issued pardons, he was “a little surprised at the size of them.”
“I thought there were certain offenders who pleaded guilty or were found guilty of violent crimes that he might not pardon because there are police officers on the other end of those violent crimes,” Allen said.
He also believes many people should never have been charged. His clients have “lost so much” in the process – one client from Tennessee missed the birth of his child – and the pardons give them “back their rights,” he said.
But he also questioned how Trump's pardons and a series of other pardons by Biden early Monday – for officials who had investigated the Jan. 6 incident and others who had drawn the ire of Trump and members of his family – were perceived of the American justice system.
“I have to think about what other countries think when they see our leadership behaving like this,” he said. “It’s almost like the embarrassment of mom and dad arguing in front of the kids.”