On his first day in office, President Donald Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol — fueled by a false narrative that the election has been “rigged” or “stolen.”

“These are the hostages,” he said, while signing the paperwork in the Oval Office. Trump has previously described Jan. 6, 2021, as “a day of love” and called the rioters “patriots.”

Among the dozens of Marylanders who received pardons were members of the far-right group the Proud Boys, military veterans and a former member of the state board of elections. Charges and sentences were wide-ranging, from probation for offenses like civil disorder to years-long sentences in federal prison for assaulting police officers.

Earlier this week, judges who sentenced hundreds of rioters criticized the presidential pardons, with several saying in written orders that the mass pardons won’t change the truth about the mob’s attack on a bastion of American democracy.

Among Marylanders who were convicted, and now pardoned, two of the longest sentences were handed down to Christopher Alberts and Scott Miller.

Alberts, from Pylesville, was found guilty on nine charges and sentenced to seven years in prison. The day of the riot, the military veteran showed up at the Capitol wearing “body armor” and carried a loaded 9-millimeter pistol, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He allegedly grabbed a Capitol Police officer so he could go up steps to the Capitol’s Upper West terrace. He also berated officers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, calling them “treasonous” and “communists.”

“Y’all wanted the war,” he allegedly yelled at them. “You asked for it. You got it.”

An attorney for Alberts didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

An online fundraiser for Alberts started by the National Constitutional Law Union says he received threats and hate mail after his arrest and faced “emotional weight as well as financial burden.” In a post to the page earlier this month before Trump’s pardons, Alberts’ fiancee urged people to sign a petition to free the Jan. 6 rioters, writing that “we wouldn’t have our president or our country back today if they did not stand for all of us and election integrity.”

Miller, of Millersville, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting officers using a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to more than five years in prison. Miller, a leader of the Maryland chapter of the Proud Boys, was accused of assaulting an officer with a wooden pole and throwing objects at the police, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He stormed the Capitol through the Lower West Terrace tunnel, the site of “some of the most violent assaults on law enforcement officers,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Miller allegedly swung a long pole several times, hitting officers, and ripped shields away from them.

An attorney for Miller didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other Marylanders who received multi-year prison sentences for assaulting law enforcement include Rodney Milstreed of Finksburg; Steven Cook of Bethesda, Matthew Miller of Cooksville and Daniel Egtvedt of Oakland.

Attorneys for these individuals did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Some Marylanders who received pardons from Trump were facing trials or just days away from reporting to jail.

From Harford County, Brandon Keith Heffner’s federal case had been working its way through the legal system for nearly a year. He was charged with obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder, along with misdemeanor offenses.

In a November 2021 interview, he told FBI agents he was a former member of the Proud Boys. Heffner told investigators he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but denied entering the building.

A week after Trump’s election victory in November, Heffner’s attorney asked federal judges to delay the case until Trump appointed a new U.S. attorney. His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adam Obest, who had been sentenced to more than a year in prison on two felony charges and several misdemeanor offenses, was expected to have to report to prison “any day now,” reported WMAR News.

An attorney for Obest didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Frederick County man allegedly engaged in a “verbal and physical confrontation” with the police, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and threatened them with a large American flag affixed to a metal flagpole. He also allegedly threw a smoke grenade toward officers.

In an interview with WMAR, Obest said he “should have turned around,” but added that people at the Capitol on Jan. 6 “were not domestic terrorists, were not problems to this country, insurrectionists.”

Baltimore Banner reporters Adam Willis and Lillian Reed, as well as the Associated Press contributed to this article.