President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon people charged for their involvement with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is “an affront to decency and courage,” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich declared during a media briefing Wednesday.
“Turning over their convictions and stopping their prosecutions is very troubling. What makes it especially bizarre is the president was very adamant about how he felt about people who attacked police,” Elrich said. “You know the toll that policing takes on police, and here he’s pardoning 1,500 people who attacked police and actually killed one of them. This is of no small consequence.”
Elrich said he found Trump’s pardons particularly insulting to the Montgomery County police officers who were sent to respond to the attack on the Capitol alongside other local police departments in the Washington, D.C. area.
“We continue to have police officers dealing with trauma, physical and emotional, from that day,” Elrich said. “Pardoning everyone involved in this attempted takeover of democracy, otherwise known as a coup, is a chilling message to send to our law enforcement personnel and others.”
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, a former Montgomery County police chief, has publicly criticized Trump’s pardons of those charged for their involvement in the insurrection.
“I think it sends the message that politics is more important than policing,” Manger told CBS Evening News on Tuesday. “My concern is the message that it sends when people who are arrested for committing violence against police officers are not held to account. And I worry about the morale of my officers. I worry about just how this impacts them.”
Lee Holland, president of the Montgomery County chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from Bethesda Today. A spokesperson for the organization said it was working on a statement.
Six known Montgomery County residents who participated in the insurrection were arrested or sentenced, including Justin Lee of Rockville, who allegedly attended the insurrection prior to becoming a county police officer. Lee began working for the county police department on Jan. 31, 2022. County police said his participation in the insurrection was not known at the time of his hiring. Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison in August. He was fired by the police department following his conviction.
A county police department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lee’s pardoning, or the other pardons, Thursday.
Those that supported Trump’s pardons pointed out that pardons issued by outgoing President Joe Biden were not without controversy. Biden used his final hours in office Monday to preemptively pardon members of Congress that served on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, including U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Dist. 8) of Takoma Park.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement on the White House website, which has since been removed following Trump’s inauguration Monday. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
According to the Associated Press, Biden’s decision was likely inspired by news of Trump’s “enemies list,” which is slated to include elected officials who were involved in the investigation of the insurrection that intended to disrupt congressional certification of Biden as president.
“There was an attempted violent insurrection against the government and an attempt to overthrow a presidential election. Our committee definitively and exhaustively reported on everything that happened. Nobody has contradicted any of the facts in there,” Raskin told NPR on Monday. “And the idea that they’re going to try to prosecute [committee vice chair] Liz Cheney or [committee chair] Bennie Thompson or any of us is just absurd.”
How will the county respond to Trump’s executive orders?
Elrich criticized several of Trump’s executive orders Wednesday, including one to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.
“His actions are a step in the wrong direction … . We remain a leader in climate resilience, sustainability, investing in clean energy, expanding public transit and adopting innovative programs to support our climate action plan,” Elrich said. “Our current government’s actions at the federal level will now hamper our efforts instead of enhancing them.”
Elrich and County Council President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) said during the media briefing that Trump’s executive order to disband diversity, equity and inclusion programming will not be replicated in the county.
“Regardless of changes in the administration, here in Montgomery County, we’re going to continue our work on racial equity to ensure our policies we pass are advancing equity and dismantling historic institutionalized racism,” Stewart said.
Elrich praised state legislators for passing legislation in recent years that aims to protect LGBTQ+ Marylanders, including the Trans Shield Act, in the wake of Trump’s executive order proclaiming the federal government will only recognize two biological sexes.
The Trans Shield Act, which was sponsored by Silver Spring representative and House Majority Leader Del. David Moon (D-Dist. 20), ensures that states that ban gender-affirming care can’t wield private health records against transgender Marylanders and their physicians. It protects Maryland residents and patients who live outside of the state who receive gender-affirming care within the state, as well as their physicians, from legal action and prosecution for receiving or providing that care.
“It’s sad and scary that this community, which is already suffering from high suicide rates and is often alienated from their own families, is now being victimized by its own federal government,” Elrich said.
Phillip Alexander Downie, CEO of the MoCo Pride Center, a local organization that provides resources, services and events for Montgomery County’s LGBTQ+ community, posted a statement in response to Trump’s executive order on social media Wednesday.
“The challenges we face are daunting, but they are not insurmountable,” Downie wrote. “Each of us has the power to be a force for good, whether by showing up for one another, contributing to the fight, or simply existing authentically in a world that tries to deny us.”
Stewart encouraged members of the county’s LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups to check out the County Council’s community resource list and connect with government offices and partner organizations for support.
“We’re going to continue providing funding and services for our LGBTQ+ community and make sure that Montgomery County continues to protect the rights of our LGBTQ+ residents,” Stewart said. “It is our intent to mitigate any potential harm by maintaining and providing local county services, and the first step of that is making sure our residents are informed.”