Making good on a campaign promise, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump on Monday issued clemency to all defendants federally charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol he incited.
Eleven Connecticut residents had been charged in connection with the Justice Department’s investigation into Jan. 6. Two other defendants, Victoria Bergeson and Maurcio Mendez, both of Groton, were arrested on the day of the riot and charged with violation of the D.C. Code for unlawful entry to the Capitol grounds. They were each sentenced to 180 days of confinement and two years of probation.
Connecticut Public reached out to each defendant charged via the DOJ investigation or their legal counsel for comment on the pardons. All either declined or did not return calls or emails, except for Heather Shaner, who represented Carla Krzywicki. Krzywicki was part of a mother-daughter duo from Canterbury. Investigators say they climbed a bike rack to enter the Capitol.
“I am happy for my clients, if it makes their lives easier,” Shaner said. “I am terrified for the future of democracy.”
Shaner said Krzywicki benefited from probation because it provided her access to mental health treatment. She also said her client was extremely remorseful and had educated herself since the Capitol attack.
Shaner called the pardons “cynical horse (expletive).”
“I think it’s a big middle finger to America,” Shaner said. “It just validates the original Big Lie that the election was stolen. It’s just, ‘I’m a big boy. I can do anything the [expletive] I want. Ha ha, now I’m president.’”
Shaner’s attitude about the pardon stood in contrast to New Haven-based attorney Norm Pattis, who on Monday celebrated the broad pardon.
Meet the CT residents investigated by the DOJ after January 6, 2021
Patrick Edward McCaughey III, Ridgefield
McCaughey was charged with and convicted of seven felonies and two misdemeanors. Prosecutors presented evidence that McCaughey participated in the “savage beating” of a police officer at the Capitol. He was alleged to have participated in using a riot shield to pin a police officer in Capitol doors, as seen in dramatic footage. He had been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. CT Post reported Tuesday that his mother said he was currently en route to Connecticut after being released from prison in Ohio.
Richard Markey, Wolcott
Markey pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding police using a dangerous weapon. He had been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Jean Lavin and daughter Carla Krzywicki, Canterbury
Lavin and Krzywicki had each received 36 months of probation after pleading guilty to charges that they breached the Capitol during the insurrection. Krzywicki had also been sentenced to three months of home detention, and Lavin had been sentenced to two months of home detention.
Brothers Thomas and Michael Kenny, Greenwich
Each pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. They were due to be sentenced Jan. 28, 2025.
Gino DiGiovanni Jr., Derby
Former Derby Alderman DiGiovanni pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building. In April 2024, he was sentenced to 10 days in prison and 12 months of supervised release.
Richard T. Crosby Jr., Harwinton
Crosby breached the Senate chamber and stood on the dais alongside the so-called “QAnon Shaman.” He pleaded guilty to four charges. He was due to be sentenced in February.
Benjamin Cohen, Westport
Cohen pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. Prosecutors said he took part in the pushing of a line of police officers. His case was dismissed on Tuesday before sentencing.
James Roe Cleary, Waterford
Cleary was charged with multiple counts, including engaging in physical violence in a restricted building. He pleaded not guilty and his case had been continued to March 2025.
Jeremy Baouche, New London
Baouche, an Electric Boat employee, pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. He had been sentenced to 30 days in prison and two years of probation.
Federal delegation reacts
Some members of Connecticut’s all-Democratic federal delegation were quick to respond to the pardons.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called the pardons a “massive celebration of political violence.”
“I just don’t think that we can over-hype how dangerous it is that today… he is pardoning, he is expunging the prosecutions of the people who tried to tear down our Capitol, who tried to install into power the loser of the 2020 election,” Murphy said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called Trump’s decision “sickening.”
“The mass pardons for people who committed a violent insurrection, not only injuring but in some cases causing the deaths of police officers, is absolutely abhorrent,” Blumenthal told reporters. “These January 6 rioters were lawfully convicted by a jury of peers, everyday Americans, and it is a discredit to our criminal justice system for the president of the United States to issue pardons to people who sought to prevent a peaceful transition of power.”
Rep. Jim Himes, who was at the building during the Capitol breach that day, posted on social media that the pardons were “a grotesque abuse of authority and a betrayal of our democracy.”
Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Ben Proto said Tuesday the party would only provide a statement on Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons “when there is a statement from [the Connecticut Democratic Party] on Biden pardons and clemency.”
This story was originally published by Connecticut Public Radio. It was shared as part of the New England News Collaborative.
