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A Clean Slate for Jan. 6 Rioters From the New York Area

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A Clean Slate for Jan. 6 Rioters From the New York Area

Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at some of the Jan. 6 rioters whom President Donald J. Trump pardoned or whose sentences he commuted in a sweeping set of executive orders.

Nearly 1,600 people charged with taking part in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were pardoned or had their sentences commuted by President Donald J. Trump this week. A number of the criminal defendants had ties to New York, as my colleague Ed Shanahan reported, and had been convicted on an array of charges, from trespassing to assaulting law enforcement officers. But this sweeping action has wiped clean the slate for them.

A White House proclamation called the pardons an end to a “grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, criticized the action.

“Donald Trump is ushering in a Golden Age for people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government,” he said.

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Those with ties to New York who garnered widespread attention during the riot included:

  • Thomas Webster: A former Marine and a retired New York City police officer, Webster was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being caught on video shoving through a police line and then swinging a flagpole at and tackling an officer. He made a self-defense claim at trial, but the jury rejected it.

  • Dominic Pezzola: Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys and a contractor from Rochester, was found guilty on six felony counts, including charges of assaulting an officer and conspiring to keep members of Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election. He became known as a main actor in the riot when video clips showing him breaking a window at the Capitol surfaced online.

  • Roberto Minuta: Minuta is a former Oath Keeper. He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for seditious conspiracy related to the riot. He has since tried to distance himself from the group, suggesting at his sentencing that he had been misled by it.

  • Thomas Sibick: After pleading guilty to assaulting a Metropolitan Police officer during the riot, Sibick was sentenced to just over four years in prison. He took responsibility for his actions in a letter to the judge, calling the trauma the officer had experienced “undeniably sickening.”

  • Sara Carpenter: Carpenter, also a former New York City police officer, was ordered to spend 22 months in prison after being convicted of several crimes that involved her pushing and slapping officers while wielding a tambourine and yelling.

  • Edward Jacob Lang: Lang was charged with a series of crimes connected to the riot and had been in jail awaiting his trial when Trump issued the blanket pardon. Investigators arrested Lang after tracing a string of social media posts back to him. Court records said that the social media posts showed Lang swinging a baseball bat at police officers and thrusting a riot shield in their direction.


Weather

Today will gradually become sunny with a high near 31. Expect a breezy evening with a mostly clear sky and a low around 19.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

Suspended to aid weather operations.

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Dear Diary:

Over 45 years ago, I took a class in sales at a building at West 41st Street and Eighth Avenue. At the end of the first night, I yelled out, “Anyone going to the East Side?”

“I am,” said one woman in a class of 15 to 20 people.

Making our way east across 42nd Street, we walked past peep shows, food vendors and pickpockets.

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Video: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

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Video: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

new video loaded: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

Our graphics reporter Lazaro Gamio breaks down the second-by-second analysis leading up to the deadly plane crash at LaGuardia Airport.

By Lazaro Gamio, Coleman Lowndes and James Surdam

March 27, 2026

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Video: LaGuardia Crash Survivors Recount Ordeal

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Video: LaGuardia Crash Survivors Recount Ordeal

“I just thought, please don’t let this be how my life ends. I’m not ready to die. When we landed, it was a very rough landing. Like we landed and the plane jolted back up, and that caught a lot of passengers off guard. Everyone kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then you hear the pilot braking, and it was like just this grinding sound.” “Everybody was shocked everywhere. There was — there’s people screaming. The plane just veered off course. I mean, it was just — it all happened so quickly, but it all felt just like a very dire situation.” “Oh, God. Oh my goodness. That’s crazy.” “People were bleeding from their nose, cuts and scrapes. I saw black eyes, all different types of facial contusions, bruising and bleeding. I was sitting by the exit door, and I opened the exit door. There was a sense of camaraderie amongst the survivors. Nobody was pushing, shoving, ‘I got to get out first.’” “The plane actually tipped back as we were leaving, as people were getting off the plane. That was when the nose kind of fell off the front of the plane, and the whole plane kind of went up to what we’d seen in all the pictures of the plane’s nose in the air.” And there was no slide when we got out. A lot of us were jumping off of the airplane wing to get down. And when I got out and I saw that the front of the plane, how destroyed it was, I just was — I was in shock.” “It was only really when I was outside of the plane, looking back at the plane, and I had seen what had happened to the cockpit, and then just like this sense of dread overcame me, where I was just like, wow, a lot of people might have just been pretty badly hurt.” “I’m grateful to the pilots who were so courageous and brave, and acted swiftly, and they saved our lives. And if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to come home to my family. I’m forever indebted to them. They’re my heroes.”

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Video: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

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Video: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

new video loaded: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

The two pilots of a Air Canada Express jet were killed after a collision with a Port Authority fire truck on Sunday at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

By Axel Boada and Monika Cvorak

March 23, 2026

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