Within hours of President Trump’s taking the oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” he pardoned more than 1,000 of the rioters who on Jan. 6, 2021, invaded and desecrated the Capitol and violently prevented the timely peaceful certification of the election of President Biden.

These rioters under Trump’s influence committed seditious conspiracy against the United States. We saw the violent rioting in the news and in the ensuing House of Representatives investigation. Many of those arrested were tried in courts, and received sentences to serve time in prison.

Trump’s pardon of these criminals not only marks him as violating his presidential oath of office but also provides an incentive for further mayhem by those who anticipate immunity for similar disruptive violations of the law as approved by their president.

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The 14th Amendment to the Constitution states this: “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States … who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” — Section 3.

If President Trump can incite violent insurrection, pardon those convicted of violent attempts to disrupt a democratic electoral process, and be immune to the just consequences of breaking the law, we can no longer call our nation a Constitutional democracy.

Judy Parr

Holland