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Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Joe Biden
Joe Harker
Former US president Donald Trump has promised to pardon the Capitol rioters if he makes it back into the White House in 2024.
Despite losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump is still the Republican frontrunner for the presidency.
The violent riots and storming of the US Capitol building - which left five people dead - occurred while Congress was certifying Biden's election victory.
Rioters were able to break into the building, making it into the Senate chamber as politicians had to be evacuated by police due to the risk that their lives were in danger.
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Trump was accused of inciting the riots by claiming the election was rigged against him and telling a crowd of people in Washington DC 'we're gonna walk down to the Capitol' and 'if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country any more'.
During his speech he also repeated his false claim that the Republicans won the 2020 election, which they lost by over seven million votes.
Over a year on, according to Sky News, Trump has told a crowd he would grant pardons to the Capitol rioters provided he returned to the presidency in 2024.
During a rally in Texas he said: 'If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6th fairly.
'And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.'
Over 700 people have been arrested and charged with crimes in relation to the Capitol riots, of which 150 are facing charges of assaulting a police officer and over 50 have been charged with conspiracy.
Meanwhile, 11 leaders of a far-right militia group have been charged with seditious conspiracy, which alleges they attempted to overthrow the US government.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for his part in inciting the Capitol riots, though he was acquitted by the Senate.
While a majority of senators - 57 out of 100 - voted to find him guilty of inciting an insurrection, it would have taken a two-thirds majority of 67 votes to convict him.
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