A question about section 3 of the 14th Amendment

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10. Some history suggests the answer is no.

In 1794, two men were convicted of treason for their role in the Whiskey Rebellion and sentenced to death. A year later, after twice staying their execution, President George Washington exercised his constitutional power to pardon the two men. Washington also pardoned a group of Whiskey Rebellion plotters who were indicted for treason but had not yet been tried.

Given this history, and while acknowledging that the 14th amendment came after Washington's presidency, the chances that the exercise of that power would be treated as giving comfort to the January 6 insurrectionists seem pretty slim (since by the same logic, Washington's pardons could be viewed as giving comfort to traitors). If it could be shown that Trump promised the pardons before January 6, the situation arguably would be different, although by no means certain.