“Dismissal of charges, pardons after convictions, and commutations of sentences will not change the truth of what happened on January 6, 2021,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a six-page order dismissing charges against Dominic Box, who she had previously convicted on two felony counts related to his involvement in the riot.

“What occurred that day is preserved for the future through thousands of contemporaneous videos, transcripts of trials, jury verdicts, and judicial opinions analyzing and recounting the evidence through a neutral lens,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote. “Those records are immutable and represent the truth, no matter how the events of January 6 are described by those charged or their allies.”

The judge, who was appointed to the federal bench by Clinton, is the first to comment after Trump’s extensive clemency actions and the dismissal of more than 1,500 January 6 cases. This includes hundreds of pending charges related to assaults on police officers. Since Monday evening, when Trump signed his clemency proclamation, judges have been diligently processing the dismissals of numerous pending cases. None of them had made any public statements about the issue yet, even though they had repeatedly warned before Roger’s date that they were worried about efforts by the president and his allies to cover up the truth about January 6.

Kollar-Kotelly emphasized that the “heroism displayed by each officer who responded” should not be overlooked.

“Grossly outnumbered, those law enforcement officers acted valiantly to protect the Members of Congress, their staff, the Vice President and his family, the integrity of the Capitol grounds, and the Capitol Building — our symbol of liberty and a symbol of democratic rule around the world,” she wrote. “For hours, those officers were aggressively confronted and violently assaulted. More than 140 officers were injured. Others tragically passed away as a result of the events of that day. But law enforcement did not falter. Standing with bear spray streaming down their faces, those officers carried out their duty to protect.”

“All of what I have described has been recorded for posterity, “ the judge concluded, “ensuring that what transpired on January 6, 2021 can be judged accurately in the future.”

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