A day after U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s sweeping grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, America¡¯s far-right celebrated. Some called for the death of judges who oversaw the trials. Others partied and expressed relief. Some even wept with joy.

Several experts who study extremism said the extraordinary reversal for rioters who committed both violent and nonviolent crimes on Jan. 6, including assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy, will embolden the Proud Boys and other extremist groups such as white supremacists who have openly called for political violence.

In a few pen strokes, Trump reversed the largest U.S. Justice Department investigation and prosecution in history, as he attempted to rewrite what happened during the violent riot on Jan. 6, 2021. As he took office for a second term on Monday, Trump continued to claim, falsely, that the 2020 election was rigged and that he was the rightful winner. He has described the riots as a peaceful ¡°day of love¡± rather than a melee aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

¡°We¡¯re not going to put up with that crap anymore,¡± Trump said at a post-inauguration rally on Monday, describing the Jan. 6 offenders as ¡°hostages.¡±

For the convicted Jan. 6 defendants, and for the Trump faithful, the pardons were vindication for unjust persecutions by the president¡¯s political enemies.

Gavin McInnes, the British-born founder of the Proud Boys, said in an interview that he and his friends were celebrating late on Monday by ¡°pounding bourbons and laughing our heads off.¡±

Before the 2020 election, Trump told the Proud Boys ¡ª a violent all-male extremist group ¡ª to ¡°stand back and stand by.¡± Three months later, federal prosecutors say, the group¡¯s leaders plotted the Jan. 6 attack.

¡°This is a victory for us,¡± said McInnes, now a right-leaning podcaster. If Trump hadn¡¯t given all the Proud Boys clemency, the president would have been ¡°dead to me, and Proud Boys and MAGA and everyone,¡± he said. ¡°But luckily, that didn¡¯t happen.¡±

In a video posted online shortly after the pardons, convicted rioter Christopher Kuehne, a Marine veteran from Kansas who traveled to Washington with the Proud Boys in January 2021, sobbed: ¡°I am finally free. I don¡¯t even have the words to thank President Trump for what he has done for us.¡± He was sentenced in February to 75 days in prison and 24 months of supervised release for obstructing law enforcement.

Another Proud Boy said the pardons would help recruit more members. ¡°A lot of people stayed away from us after there were arrests,¡± he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ¡°Now,...