Trump's Pardon Promise, The Islamic State's Iran Attack, Jeffrey Epstein Conspiracies

If elected, he'll issue pardons for rioters convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 attack

on the U.S. Capitol.

Can he do that, and would Congress or the courts have the power to stop him?

I'm Laila Fadl and this is Up First from NPR News.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing that killed more

than 80 people in Iran this week.

The violent Sunni extremist group once controlled sprawling swaths of Iraq and Syria, but was

largely dismantled.

Why do they have their sights set on Iran?

And a growing trove of court documents related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein

has revived conspiracy theories.

What are people saying in the darkest corners of the web?

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This weekend marks three years since a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the

U.S. Capitol.

Since the January 6th insurrection, around 900 people have pleaded guilty or been convicted

of criminal charges stemming from that day.

The FBI continues to make arrests every week.

The future of those cases may now hinge on the presidential election.

That's because Donald Trump has promised to pardon January 6th defendants if he returns

to the White House.

NPR's Tom Dreisbach has been covering the Capitol riots since that day, and he joins

me now.

Good morning.

At his very first campaign rally of the election cycle, he played a song featuring the voices

of January 6th defendants recorded from jail singing the Star Spangled Banner.

Trump refers to these defendants as patriots and being politically persecuted in his view.

He's also helped raise money for their cases, at least $10,000 that we know of.

In his stump speech, Trump calls the defendants in prison hostages, and he's talked about

freeing or pardoning these defendants.

At one point, he even shared an image on social media that, quote, the cops should be charged

and the protesters should be freed.

Is it all of them?

This one is a little bit vague.

Trump has announced that pardons would come on day one of his presidency and that he would

pardon, quote, a large portion of defendants outside of a couple.

But beyond that, it gets sketchy.

On Fox News last year, Brett Baier asked for specifics about rioters convicted of violent

crimes.

Well, you also have, I know we'd look at individual cases, but many of those people are very innocent

the Proud Boys.

Enrique Tarrio was his name and he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22

years in prison.

At times, Trump has said free all of the defendants.

I asked the Trump campaign about this, but they didn't respond.

defendant if he wanted to.

And legally, Congress and the courts would not be able to block him.

Practically speaking, those pardons would mean halting ongoing cases, releasing people

from prison or probation.

And for the people convicted of felonies, that's hundreds of defendants, it would mean

restoring the right to own guns.

I should say that some of these defendants have expressed remorse, even renounced Trump,

but others have further embraced conspiracy theories, white nationalism, anti-government

extremism.

One defendant told me that the government had made an enemy by arresting him.

I talked about this with Tom Joslin.

He was a senior staff member for the Congressional Select Committee that investigated January

6th.

And he's also an expert on counterterrorism.

of more violence certainly goes up.

And prosecutors say his election lies fueled the January 6th riot.

Where does Trump's own case fit into all this?

defendants against him in court.

Basically, their argument is that Trump's support for the defendants shows his intent

that he supported the storming of the Capitol and the violence to try and stay in power,

even though he lost the 2020 election, of course.

Now, we don't know whether prosecutors will be able to show that evidence to a jury, but

in any event, we're waiting to see when that trial might go forward.

Thanks so much, Tom.

for an attack this week in southeastern Iran that killed 84 people.

The group says two of its members detonated suicide vests in a crowd of civilians who

were marking the killing of a prominent Iranian general four years ago this week.

The same group has said it was behind two previous attacks in Iran.

NPR's Peter Kenyon joins us now from Istanbul to talk about this.

Hi, Peter.

Now, Khorasan's a big province.

It includes part of northern Afghanistan, parts of Iran and Turkmenistan.

And this same group also said it was behind a shooting attack at a Shia shrine in Shiraz

in 2000, 2022, and another one last year.

Now, the governor of the Iranian province where the two shooting attacks occurred has

said the second was in response to Iran executing the government from the first attack.

And analysts say the group's motive is believed to be primarily sectarian.

The ISKP is a Sunni Muslim group.

Iran's population is predominantly Shia.

And the ISKP considers Shias to be apostates.

This week's suicide bomb attack was by far the deadliest of the three.

Soleimani that was killed by the U.S. back in 2020?

Iranian officials credit Soleimani with playing a key role in fighting Islamic State forces

in Syria and Iraq.

Soleimani for years worked with militant groups designated as terrorists by Western countries.

And of course, it was a coalition led by the United States and the so-called Syrian Democratic

Forces that played a decisive role in eradicating ISIS from Syria and Iraq, effectively eliminating

their so-called caliphate.

But the fact that Iran gives credit to General Soleimani for having had an important role

in ending ISIS control in those countries may help explain in part why the ISKP would

target a ceremony honoring Soleimani's life and career.

involved in the attack.

But this claim would seem to eliminate that possibility, right?

I mean, that's not on the table anymore.

Israeli attack.

Israel has launched attacks inside Iran over the years, but it has kept a narrow focus

on its operations there.

It's targeted Iranian nuclear scientists and facilities that are involved in Iran's nuclear

program.

In 2021, for instance, Iran blamed Israel for a mysterious explosion at the Natanz nuclear

facility that knocked out the power there.

Reports at the time said the operation was carried out by Israel's spy agency, the Mossad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said then that there's no threat in the Middle East

quote more serious, more dangerous, more pressing than that posed by what he called the fanatical

regime in Iran.

Now, Tehran has always maintained its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, and Israel has

never been convinced by those declarations.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said they will do what it takes to prevent Iran from

acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Western officials say there's nothing to indicate Israel would have been behind an attack on

civilians at a ceremony for General Soleimani.

This claim by Islamic State, if confirmed, would seem to settle that question.

This appears to have been a Sunni extremist group attacking Shia Muslims.

Thank you, Peter.

wealthy associates allegedly connected to the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

He took his life four years ago, but new documents that lay out names and accusations against

some of his associates is putting Epstein's story back into the limelight.

And that's become an opportunity for conspiracy theorists.

NPR's Lisa Hagen is here to explain why.

Hi, Lisa.

Good morning, Leila.

So we have this list.

How is it being received in the most conspiratorial corners of the Internet?

these names of powerful men allegedly associated with him, the biggest theme across conspiracist

communities right now is that whatever we're being shown isn't the real story.

So a couple examples, some people are pushing the idea that a school shooting that took

place yesterday in Iowa was actually a staged event meant to distract the public from the

Epstein list.

And then you have other folks saying that the Epstein list itself is a distraction from

new alleged evidence of election fraud that proves Donald Trump is the rightful president.

I mean, these two claims sound contradictory.

Is the Epstein list the distraction or the thing being distracted from?

In the age of social media, conspiracy theories are a form of communal storytelling.

So they tend to have a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

Also, contradictions are very common because conspiracies are less about the details than

they are about a larger worldview.

The central truth that matters is that you can't believe what you're shown.

It's what's being hidden from you that's really important.

So with Epstein, you have a really effective embodiment of that idea.

Here's Eric Oliver, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.

people who dies under mysterious circumstances in federal custody.

I mean, that's just ripe for any kind of conspiracy narrative.

show what a malleable and useful character Epstein has become.

These are people who gain money and influence by spreading conspiracist beliefs.

And there are entire networks of influencers and media outlets devoted to posing as sources

of this, you know, supposedly hidden knowledge.

But why else does this matter to the many people who don't buy into these conspiracy

theories?

theory often makes people vulnerable to others, some of which cause real damage in the world.

Like, for example, debunked claims that vaccines cause more harms than good or the big lie

that the presidential election was rigged against Trump.

Conspiracy thinking also detracts from real political engagement.

You know, being skeptical of power is actually really important to a democracy.

But all the energy that goes into posting and amplifying unfounded claims does not generally

translate into meaningful policy change or helping people who need it.

Thank you, Lisa.

I'm Laila Faldil.

And today's episode of Up First was edited by Barry Hardiman, Mark Katkov, and Brett

Neely.

It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, and Lindsey Toddy.

We get engineering support from Phil Edfors, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.

Start your day here with us on Monday.

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