Former President Trump defended his supporters who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and called them “warriors” at a Nevada rally on Sunday.

“Those J6 warriors — they were warriors — but they were really, more than anything else, they’re victims of what happened,” Trump said at the rally, speaking to a crowd of supporters.

Trump and his supporters have at times sought to recharacterize the Jan. 6 riots as peaceful. In reality, however, about140 officers were injured, and five died in the days after the attack. One Capitol Police officerlikened the scene to a “war zone” and recounted, before a congressional committee, slipping in other people’s blood as she engaged in “hand-to-hand combat” for hours.

Trump, in the past, has used similar words to describe those jailed over their actions during the Jan. 6 attack. InNovember 2023, Trump referred to them as “hostages.”

He alsosaid in March that, if reelected in November, one of his first tasks will be to “Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!”

As of Jan. 6 of this year more than 1,200 defendants had been charged in connection to the attack on the Capitol. More than 450 have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees, according to the Justice Department.

More than 700 individuals have pleaded guilty to various federal charges, the Justice Department said.

Updated on June 10 at 8:17 a.m.