14 had sentences commuted; about 1,500 were pardoned

On his first day back in office, Trump issued a blanket pardon for most January 6 defendants. He separately commuted the prison sentences of 14 people who had received some of the longest sentences. Those 14 are a small share of the roughly 1,500 people who received clemency, and the rest got full pardons. I answered from memory and did not run a search. The figures are well established, though some sources round the pardon count differently.

• The commutations covered 14 people, mostly leaders or members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers convicted of seditious conspiracy or related charges.
• Those commuted included Enrique Tarrio, Stewart Rhodes, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Kelly Meggs.
• A commutation shortens or ends a sentence but leaves the conviction in place. A pardon forgives the offense.
• The roughly 1,500 pardons were issued in a proclamation on the same day, January 20, 2025.

The count is 14 because the proclamation lists exactly 14 named recipients in its commutation section. Those commutations are distinct from the pardons granted in the following section, so the larger number of pardon recipients should not be counted as sentence commutations.

• Proclamation 10887 explicitly names 14 people for sentence commutations.
• Their sentences were reduced to time served as of January 20, 2025.
• The proclamation separately granted full pardons to all other individuals convicted of January 6-related offenses.

1. govinfo.gov
2. whitehouse.gov
3. whitehouse.gov
4. presidency.ucsb.edu
5. govinfo.gov
6. public-inspection.federalregister.gov
7. washingtonpost.com
8. en.wikisource.org

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued Presidential Proclamation 10887, which granted clemency to federal defendants associated with the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Rather than issuing blanket full pardons to all defendants, the proclamation made an exception for 14 high-ranking members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys convicted of serious offenses such as seditious conspiracy. For those 14 individuals, Trump commuted their sentences to time served—releasing them from prison while initially leaving their criminal convictions in place—while granting full, unconditional pardons to approximately 1,500 others.

• On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Presidential Proclamation 10887 granting broad executive clemency to January 6 defendants.
• Proclamation 10887 specifically commuted the sentences of 14 individuals to time served as of January 20, 2025.
• The 14 commuted defendants were high-profile leaders and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, including Stewart Rhodes, Ethan Nordean, and Joseph Biggs.
• All other individuals convicted of January 6 offenses received full, complete, and unconditional pardons rather than sentence commutations.

1. wikipedia.org
2. wikipedia.org
3. whitehouse.gov
4. substack.com

The clemency order was written as two parts: a commutation for 14 named individuals and a blanket pardon for everyone else convicted of January 6 offenses. So the number who had sentences commuted — as opposed to pardoned — is 14. Because the question is a count rather than a yes/no claim, the answer field is "open" and the number is given in the summary and headline.

• On January 20, 2025, Trump issued a clemency proclamation covering people charged or convicted over the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.
• It commuted the sentences of 14 people to time served.
• It granted full, unconditional pardons to the remaining January 6 defendants, a group usually put at about 1,500 people.
• The 14 whose sentences were commuted included leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy, such as Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes.
• A commutation shortens a sentence but leaves the conviction in place; a pardon removes the conviction itself.

The question asks for the number of January 6 defendants convicted of a crime who had their sentences commuted. Multiple reliable sources, including Wikipedia, Lawfare, and the BBC, confirm that on January 20, 2025, President Trump commuted the sentences of 14 individuals convicted of crimes related to the January 6 Capitol attack. These individuals were not pardoned but had their sentences reduced to 'time served,' meaning they were released from prison but their convictions remained. The evidence is consistent across sources and is considered settled for the purposes of this question.

• On January 20, 2025, President Trump commuted the sentences of 14 January 6 defendants to 'time served'.
• The 14 individuals were all leaders or members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.
• Most other January 6 defendants received full pardons, but these 14 received only commutations.
• The commutations did not erase their convictions, only their prison sentences.
• Sources consistently report the number as 14, including major outlets and legal trackers.

1. List of cases of the January 6 United States Capitol attack en.wikipedia.org
2. Pardon of January 6 United States Capitol attack defendants en.wikipedia.org
3. Jan. 6 pardons wiped the slate clean. Here's what the sentences were - WBAL wbaltv.com
4. Roberto Minuta en.wikipedia.org
5. Trump Pardons or Commutes Terms of All Jan. 6 Rioters | Lawfare lawfaremedia.org
6. What Just Happened: Trump’s January 6 Pardons and Assaults on Law Enforcement Officers By The Numbers justsecurity.org
7. How many January 6 defendants were convicted and what ... factually.co
8. Jan. 6 pardons wiped the slate clean. Here's what the sentences were wdsu.com