Former US President Donald Trump suggested he would pardon some of those charged for their part in the riots on the US Capitol last year if he were to run in the 2024 presidential election and win.
"If I run, and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6th fairly. We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly," Trump said at a rally he held in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday night, according to AFP.
More than 700 people have been arrested as part of the investigation into the riot last January 6 that left five people dead.
Earlier this month, the founder of the far-right group Oath Keepers and 10 others were indicted for seditious conspiracy in assault on the Capitol.
Trump has repeatedly spoken out against the prosecution of those who took part in the riot, but had yet to put pardons on the table before his Saturday rally.
The former president has been accused of stoking the Capitol violence with a fiery speech claiming election fraud, and was impeached by the House of Representatives on a charge of incitement to insurrection. However, the Senate acquitted Trump after it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict him.
While Trump has not publicly confirmed if he is planning to run again for president in the 2024 election, he has hinted at such a run several times.
In a recent radio interview Trump said that the only thing that could prevent him from running would be “a bad call from a doctor or something”.
Before that, in an interview with Fox News, Trump said that he has already made up his mind regarding a 2024 run, but couldn’t explicitly declare his intentions because of “campaign financing” issues.
Last week, Trump again hinted at a presidential run when he said in a video that he will be the “45th and 47th” President of the United States.