January 6 defendants are returning home from prisons and jails across the country after President Trump issued his sweeping pardon for more than 1,500 individuals who were at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 — many of whom were charged with assaulting police officers. The defendants are expressing nothing less than sheer joy, and few are expressing any remorse. 

Mr. Trump signed the pardon on Monday night along with dozens of other executive actions from behind the Resolute Desk. “These are the hostages,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We have about six commutations in there,” he added, referring to some of those who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy and who had their sentences commuted to end on Monday night. 

A few Republicans criticized the new president on Tuesday. “Anybody who is convicted of assault on a police officer, I can’t get there, at all. I think it was a bad idea,” Senator Tillis, who is up for re-election next year, told Spectrum News. “We can’t get into this cycle where presidents are pardoning their friends.”

Some of the most famous defendants are celebrating online after going through their trials and sentences. The man who famously stole a lectern from the House side of the Capitol posed for a photo with Senator Fetterman at a Starbucks on Monday morning, and then jokingly posted on X about how he wanted his lectern back now that he had gotten his pardon. 

The man who wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt was also relieved of all criminal responsibility on Monday night. 

The most famous protester from that day — the “QAnon Shaman” — has been out of prison for some time after serving his sentence. He became a celebrity for the entire country, and later was heralded as a political prisoner by some conservatives because the prison where he was being held in Arizona would not accommodate his vegan diet. 

On Tuesday, though, he celebrated. 

“I JUST GOT THE NEWS FROM MY LAWYER … I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” the shaman, whose real name is Jake Angeli-Chansley, wrote on X. His posting said he was now going to buy some guns, adding, “I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!”

Much of the attention on Monday night turned from Mr. Trump signing the pardons in the Oval Office to the other side of the nation’s capital, where January 6 defendants were being detained at the DC Detention Facility in the southeastern part of the city. 

Supporters of the defendants gathered outside, waving flags, and demanding that their friends and loved ones be released. Just after 9 on Monday night, a defendant inside the detention facility spoke with CNN and told them that she hoped to be released in time for Mr. Trump’s inaugural galas. The supporters who were outside of the building demanded the immediate release of the defendants, which forced Metropolitan Police to move demonstrators away from the doors as they were singing and waving flags. 

Around midnight on Monday, a police officer told demonstrators that the releases would stop for the evening as the pardon process played out, which led some conservatives to threaten the Metropolitan Police with retribution. 

“Outrageous!” wrote conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “They’re refusing to release J6 prisoners just pardoned by President Trump. There must be very severe accountability for DC if they refuse to comply with the law.”

Senator Lee went a step further in a post online, saying that Congress may have to step in. “If DC is refusing to release pardoned J6 prisoners, should Congress repeal DC Home Rule — putting Congress back in charge of our capital city, as the Constitution provides?” Mr. Lee asked. 

On Tuesday morning, the Justice Department began officially posting Mr. Trump’s pardon in the federal court system for defendants, which will halt all proceedings against defendants and allow them to be released.