DeSantis says he would consider pardoning Trump and January 6 defendants if he becomes president

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during an interview that he would consider pardoning former President Donald Trump and the January 6 defendants if facts showed they were victims of political prosecutions. 

Earlier this week, DeSantis announced his candidacy for president. He said during an interview on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” on Thursday that if he were to become president in 2024, he would assemble a team to look over the cases of the January 6 defendants and Trump.

“Do you think the January 6 defendants deserve to have their cases examined by a Republican president?” Travis asked the Florida governor. “And if Trump, let’s say, gets charged with federal offenses and you are the President of the United States, would you look at potentially pardoning Trump himself based on the evidence that might emerge of those charges?”

“The DOJ and FBI have been weaponized," DeSantis answered. "We see that. We see it in a variety of contexts, some of which you mentioned. Some of it is the FBI going after parents going to school board meetings. Some of it’s how they treat a pro-life demonstrator, how they don’t go after people that are attacking pro-lifers.

"And so what I’m going to do is — I’m going to do on day one — I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases, who are people who are victims of weaponization or political targeting, and we will be aggressive at issuing pardons. Now, some of these cases, some people may have a technical violation of the law," he concluded.

When asked specifically about pardoning Trump, DeSantis responded, “I would say any example of disfavored treatment based on politics or weaponization would be included in that review, no matter how small or how big.”

Trump is currently under federal investigation for allegedly mishandling classified documents and attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He was indicted last March in New York for allegedly falsifying business records related to payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels.