Convicted US Capitol rioter Pam Hemphill turns down Trump pardon

Hemphill, who was nicknamed the “Maga granny” by social media users – in reference to Trump’s “make America great again” slogan – said she saw the Trump government as trying to “rewrite history and I don’t want to be part of that”.

“We were wrong that day, we broke the law – there should be no pardons,” she told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme.

Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of nearly 1,600 people involved in the attempt to violently overturn the 2020 election came just hours into his presidency.

In a news conference on Tuesday at the White House, he said: “These people have already served years in prison, and they’ve served them viciously.

“It’s a disgusting prison. It’s been horrible. It’s inhumane. It’s been a terrible, terrible thing.”

However, the move has drawn an uneasy reaction from some Republican politicians.

Senator Thom Tillis, from North Carolina, said he “just can’t agree” with the move, adding that it “raises legitimate safety issues on Capitol Hill”.

Another Republican US senator, James Lankford from Oklahoma, told CNN: “I think we need to continue to say we are a party of law and order.”

He added: “I think if you attack a police officer, that’s a very serious issue and they should pay a price for that.”