In the days since President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons of over 1,500 defendants from the Jan. 6 riot, several federal judges have issued blistering rebukes, painting his clemency orders as an affront to justice.

The pardons, described by Trump as a step toward “national reconciliation,” have led federal judges in Washington, D.C., to issue fiery responses to defendants seeking to have the Trump Justice Department remove their cases from the docket.