Top Law Enforcement Organization Mum on Trump Giving Pardons to Those Who Assaulted Officers on Jan. 6

A top law enforcement group declined to respond to President Donald Trump’s pardoning of Jan. 6 Capitol rioters on Tuesday.

The National Fraternal Order of the Police, an organization with more than 350,000 law enforcement members, told HuffPost’s S.V. Dáte that they do not have a statement to release when asked about Trump’s sweeping pardons.

“They congratulated him on his win in November,” Dáte reported. “Here is what they had to say when I just asked them about Trump releasing HUNDREDS of violent felons who assaulted cops: ‘We don’t have a statement about that.'”

The group previously released a statement congratulating Trump on his election victory and calling him the only “man who can put our country back on the right track.”

“The American people spoke clearly last night and flagged the American economy, public safety, and border security as the most important issues we will face in the years ahead. There is only one man who can put our country back on the right track, and that’s Donald J. Trump,” Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said at the time.

Trump pardoned about 1,500 defendants who had been convicted on charges stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He referred to those convicted as “hostages.”

While signing his pardons, Trump was asked whether those convicted of assaulting law enforcement should be pardoned, and whether they should be “punished.”

“Well I will say this, they’ve been in jail for a long time already,” the president said.