Trump pardons nearly all US Capitol rioters

President Donald Trump has pardoned nearly everyone criminally charged with participating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, in a show of solidarity with supporters who stormed the seat of American power in his name.

The far-reaching action also cuts short the sentences of 14 members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers organisations, including some who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

The document also directs the US attorney general to drop all pending cases related to the riot.

"What they've done to these people is outrageous," Trump, a Republican, told reporters in the Oval Office.

The moves fulfill a campaign promise by Trump to aid supporters who were charged and in many cases imprisoned for crimes committed during the riot, a failed attempt to stop the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

A lawyer for the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group, Enrique Tarrio, said he expected his client to be released from federal prison.

Some federal inmates serving January 6-related sentences could be released as soon as Monday, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said, adding that the bureau was still waiting on official action by Trump.

Thousands descended on the Capitol in 2021 following an incendiary speech by Trump, tearing down barricades, fighting police and sending lawmakers and Trump's vice president Mike Pence running for their lives as they met to formalise the election result.

The lawyer for Tarrio, Nayib Hassan, said he was not sure if Tarrio would receive a full pardon or a commutation cutting short his sentence. His mother also posted on X that Tarrio would be released.

Tarrio is serving a 22-year sentence, the longest of anyone criminally charged in the riot, for seditious conspiracy. He was found guilty of plotting to violently oppose the transfer of power after the 2020 election.

A lawyer for Tarrio's co-defendant, Joe Biggs, said he was also told by an intermediary that Biggs is being processed for release. Biggs, who held a senior post in the Proud Boys, was also convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 17 years in prison.