A far-right militia leader convicted of seditious conspiracy. A U.S. Marine who pepper-sprayed law enforcement. Three men who attacked police with flag poles. A QAnon adherent who graffitied “Murder the Media” on a U.S. Capitol door.
They are among the some-120 Texans charged or convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection who are included in a sweeping pardon issued by President Donald Trump on his first day in his office.
Announced Monday evening, Trump’s directive all but ends a four-year effort by the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute those involved in the riot, which ultimately resulted in five deaths, injuries to 140 police officers, at least $2.8 million in damage and roughly 1,575 federal criminal cases. Of those defendants, two-thirds pleaded guilty and roughly 250 were convicted by a judge or jury. Only four defendants were acquitted of all charges, and fourteen had their cases dismissed.
Trump promised on the campaign to support the rioters — “hostages,” as he began to refer to them — and on Monday said his mass pardon “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.”
Texans played central roles in the event. In the lead up to Jan. 6, they helped craft the Trump administration’s legal attempts to overturn the election, and spread baseless and debunked election fraud conspiracy theories on the outgoing president’s behalf. On that January day, Texan-led militias stockpiled guns just outside of Washington, D.C., and carried out the main assault on Congress. A Texan was the first person to breach the Capitol. At least 37 Texans — including many with ties to far-right militias or violent conspiracy theories — were charged for assault or other violent crimes, according to an NPR database. Many others were charged with disorderly conduct, destruction of property, theft or conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
Experts on political violence and extremism fear that Trump’s mass pardon is likely to make folk heroes of figures such as Stewart Rhodes, the Granbury-based leader of the far-right OathKeepers militia sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy. Rhodes has for years argued that he is a “political prisoner” — akin to a Jew living in Nazi Germany. Rhodes was released from prison on Tuesday, as was Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the violent Proud Boys street gang who was serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy.
“It’s extremely concerning,” said Elizabeth Neumann, who served as a senior Department of Homeland Security official for three years under Trump. “We just released the leaders of two terrorist organizations. However you want to think about Jan. 6, their role in it was premeditated. It was intended to overthrow the U.S. government and it was violent. People died. It’s a very sobering thing to realize that, in the name of politics, we have just released violent criminals out onto our streets.”
The mass pardon includes those who used firearms, stun guns, axes, mace, bike racks, fire extinguishers, bear spray, batons, baseball bats and metal whips to attack police officers, storm the Capitol and threaten lawmakers. Texans were among the armed, and many openly celebrated or egged on the violence.
Brian Scott Jackson, of Katy, was sentenced in August to three years in prison after pleading guilty to assault and other charges. The FBI said Jackson speared police officers with a flag pole, and celebrated the violence after leaving Washington.
“We love our president and we stood up for America today be proud we did it and f— these hoe ass cops that are traitors we f— ed up that capital up today !!!” prosecutors say he wrote in text messages in which he also called Black Capitol police officers the N-word.
Guy Wesley Reffitt, of Wylie, arrived to the Capitol with a handgun, body armor and zip ties, and prosecutors say he told fellow members of the Three Percenters militia that he planned to drag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the building by her ankles, “with her head hitting every step on the way down.” He was the first person tried for his role in the riot, but had his sentence reduced last month to six years and seven months in prison.
At his first trial, Reffitt’s son, Jackson, testified that his father threatened him and his sister, saying that “if you turn me in, you’re a traitor, and traitors get shot.” Jackson Reffitt said Monday that he was stunned by Trump’s decision to pardon his father, who as of Tuesday was no longer listed as in federal prison custody.
“I’m honestly flabbergasted that we’ve gotten to this point,” Jackson Reffitt told CNN. “I’m terrified. …I’ve got a gun, I’ve moved and I’ve gotten myself away from what I thought would be a dangerous situation, and staying where I thought my dad could find me or other people that are going to feel so validated by these actions, by this pardon.”
Credit: by By Robert Downen, Texas Tribune