When Ryan Nichols stood outside the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 with a bullhorn and a crowbar, he didn’t bother to hide his intentions. “It’s going to be violent,” he declared on video, according to court records, and then made good on it, assaulting police officers and urging the mob to breach the building.
He was eventually convicted and sentenced to more than five years in federal prison. But that was before Donald Trump gave him a pardon.
