In the wake of Donald Trump’s pardons of over 1,500 rioters who were either convicted or charged for crimes committed during the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that led to the death of a law enforcement officer, Joe Lombardo has dodged reporter questions and refused to condemn Trump’s pardons — including of those who attacked police officers. 

Lombardo, the former Sheriff who campaigned on “law and order”, has refused to stand up for law enforcement and speak out against the pardoning of hundreds of violent rioters who assaulted police officers during their siege of the capitol, which resulted in 140 police officers being injured. As other Republicans and law enforcement groups have spoken up to criticize Trump over these dangerous pardons, Lombardo has instead opted for cowardice. 

Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Daniele Monroe-Moreno:

“As a former law enforcement officer, it saddens me that Joe Lombardo, who campaigned on his record in law enforcement, can’t even be bothered to stand up for officers and condemn the pardoning of violent criminals who attacked police officers on January 6th. That tells you everything you need to know about him. Lombardo should do the right thing, stand up for men and women in uniform, and condemn these pardons.” 

Read more about Lombardo’s silence below: 

The Nevada Current: Lombardo silent on Trump’s clemency of January 6 violent offenders

1/23/25

• President Donald Trump’s indiscriminate release of some 1,600 January 6 insurrection defendants, including those convicted of violent crimes against police, is meeting with mixed reviews from law enforcement, and with silence from Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, who served as sheriff of Clark County before his election in 2022 as governor.  

• Lombardo’s identity as a “law and order” candidate was integral to his campaign – so much so that he was fined $20,000 for displaying the trappings of being sheriff in his gubernatorial campaign ads, a violation of ethics laws.

• Like Lombardo, Republican Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, who is also a former cop, did not respond to requests for comment on Trump’s wholesale pardons and acts of clemency. 

• “Assaulting or attacking a police officer – we take great offense to those charges and those actions by people, and they should be held to standards of the law,” Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which represents more than 3,000 Metropolitan Police officers Lombardo once led, told the Current during a phone interview Wednesday. “I’m not the president of the United States, so Trump’s the one that’s got to make that call.” 

• Days before Trump’s announcement, his designated vice-president, J.D. Vance, told Fox News that violent offenders should not be let off the hook. 

• Capitol police are smarting from Trump’s executive order releasing the Jan. 6 rioters. Some, such as Michael Fanone, are seeking protective orders from the insurrectionists who assaulted him. 

• “I have been betrayed by my country, and I’ve been betrayed by those that supported Donald Trump, whether you voted for him because he promised these pardons, or for some other reason, you knew that this was coming. And here we are,” Fanone told Anderson Cooper on CNN Monday. “Tonight, six individuals who assaulted me, as I did my job on Jan. 6, as did hundreds of other law enforcement officers, will now walk free.”

• Among those released from prison by Trump is former Nevadan Stewart Rhodes, who founded the Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government militia group composed in significant part of former members of law enforcement and the military. 

• Rhodes, sentenced to 18 years for his role in the insurrection, was among the Oath Keepers who took part in the 2014 armed rebellion staged by Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. Bundy, in 2014, led a standoff against the federal government over the court-ordered seizure of his cattle, which illegally grazed for years on public land while Bundy refused to pay grazing fees to the federal government.

• Despite reciprocal endorsements in their respective campaigns, Lombardo and Trump’s alliance remains strained, with Lombardo periodically veering from the president’s standard prescription for utter devotion. 

• In 2022, during a debate with Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, Lombardo, a Republican, declined to refer to Trump as a ‘great’ president. 

• “I wouldn’t use that adjective. I wouldn’t say great,” Lombardo responded. “I’d say he was a sound president.”

• The same day, Lombardo’s campaign capitulated in a news release. “By all measures, Donald J. Trump was a great president and his accomplishments are some of the most impactful in American history.”

• More recently, Lombardo has wavered on Trump’s aspiration to deport millions of immigrants whose only crime is to be in the country illegally. 

• Last summer, Lombardo, via a spokesperson, said he did not support Project 2025, the conservative manifesto that echoes Trump’s calls for mass deportation. However, in November, he would not say whether he’d mobilize the National Guard to support the effort.

• In early December, Lombardo said it was “too soon to opine” on using the Guard, but days later pledged full support to Trump’s effort. 

• Then last week, Lombardo said mass deportations are “not what I believe is an appropriate policy” and suggested action in that direction will take “an exorbitant amount of time.”