January 6th

To Begin Healing the Nation,
Trump47 Must Pardon ALL J6 Defendants

By Sidney Powell¹

     Does anyone remember Civil War history—you know the atrocious war between the states that led to brothers killing brothers and much of the South being burned down in four years of horrors?  More than 600,000 lives were lost—the most tragic war in American history.  That was an insurrection.

     Nonetheless, on Christmas Day 1868, President Andrew Johnson, following Lincoln, “extended unconditionally, and without reservation … a full pardon and amnesty for the offence [sic] of treason against the United States, or of adhering to their enemies during the late Civil War, with restoration of all rights, privileges, and immunities under the Constitution and the laws.”  He pardoned every soldier who had fought for the South, and he did it to close that ugly chapter of American history and heal our nation.

     We have endured a decade of double standards and lawfare that has left an ugly jagged scar on the face of Justice and rended the constitutional fabric of this country.  Each of our three pillars of government has failed us.  We have weathered years of the Democrats’ lies, smears, and illegal schemes against the Trump administration, culminating in a stolen election in 2020 and prosecutions of Trump and many conservatives while Democrats proceeded as they pleased. 

     For those with prior doubts, the 2024 election numbers make plain the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump and the real voters.  Our country has survived a coup and years of hell because of it.  We have witnessed the rapid and wrongful deterioration of every aspect of our government and culture. We were forced to watch as our cities and businesses were burned and looted by real and violent riots caused by Black Lives Matter and Antifa—with few, if any, actions by the government to enforce the law.  In the last two years especially, we have learned much about the government misconduct that permeated every aspect of the prosecutions of the January 6 defendants—beginning before they even arrived at the Capitol.  The double standards we have witnessed over the last decade are glaring and disgusting.  Blatant injustices have annihilated public trust in our institutions.  Here are just a dozen reasons why full pardons should be issued:

1. 1. The January 6 “insurrection” narrative was planned and executed by the Left. Government infiltrators of various organizations began planning and inciting it from the time President Trump suggested a rally on January 6, 2021.  It was promoted, agitated, and mishandled by FBI agents and informants through it all.  Days before the event, the FBI was trying to enlist people to engage in facially innocent acts that could be used against them in hyped-up “right wing conspiracy” charges.  Dozens of agents and provocateurs were at the Capitol to stir it all up and to spur it on.  Gallows featured in as many pictures as possible were not built by American citizens, but more likely by agents of the FBI.
   2. D.C. and Congress refused help from the National Guard. President Trump offered “10,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. Capitol.  D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declined Trump’s offer—the Left did not want the National Guard protecting the Capitol.  The mere presence of ten thousand soldiers—fellow citizens—would have served as a strong deterrent to any problem that might have arisen.
   3. Law enforcement fired into the crowd first and attacked innocents. In many instances, they were grossly—if not criminally—aggressive. They shot tear gas cannisters behind the crowd, forcing them up the steps. They provoked the crowd by assaulting peaceful protesters with rubber bullets and mace.  Unarmed veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd.  Remarkably, Byrd was later promoted, given a $37,000 retention bonus, assisted with fund-raising $160,000, and remains unpunished in any way.
   4. Law enforcement failed to enforce the law at the time. Perpetrators of a crime should be arrested when they are committing it in the presence of uniformed law enforcement officers.  The act of arrest makes clear the seriousness of the conduct and deters others.  But the goal was not to stop it, but rather, to foment something they could label an “insurrection.”  In furtherance of their set-up, to crush all Trump supporters, they knowingly let actions considered illegal to proceed fully without any intervention.  Worse, officers even invited people into the Capitol, gave them fist bumps, and gave tours.  Under no circumstances should the conduct of those invited in have been deemed criminal.  These actions enforced the belief of most of the people who entered the Capitol that they had done nothing wrong.
   5. The FBI Conducted a Terroristic Hunt-Down of American citizens. No one was arrested at the time. No weapons were used or even present.  Law enforcement allowed everyone to go home on January 6th as if nothing was wrong.  Good people returned to carry on their lives, while the Democrat media propaganda machine went into overdrive, blanketing the country with the “insurrection” narrative.  The FBI immediately began hunting down those who even got near the Capitol.  They were treated as badly or worse than Islamic terrorists. They even terrorized people who rented buses or planned trips—anyone who came within their unknown and invisible “geo-fence” around the Capitol.  They arrested each with a massive show of force—multiple agents in full SWAT regalia, black cars speeding to surround homes, throwing flash bangs, and inflicting the maximum fear and humiliation possible on the defendants and ransacking their homes in front of their children and families and neighbors.  They made a spectacle of each—in another huge waste of taxpayer dollars—and all for the purpose of crushing Trump supporters.
   6. The January 6 Committee—breaking congressional rules—formed to continue the “insurrection” theater of the Left. They spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, sent out hundreds of subpoenas, and interviewed or deposed hundreds of witnesses. They broadcast everything coming out of the prolonged, usually false narrative from the congressional January 6th Committee.  They even changed a time stamp on video to incriminate a defendant—while they and the FBI suppressed thousands of hours (44,000 hours remain unreleased) of video that showed people were innocent.
   7. The Abusive prosecutions began quickly—before anyone could review all the video. The Biden Department of Justice, supported by the Courts, over-charged defendants and bullied them to secure plea deals.  They twisted Section 1512(c)—a statute that was part of the Corporate Fraud and Accountability Act of 2002 (part of Sarbanes-Oxley)—to illegally prosecute over 300 defendants relating to January 6th.  As a Congressional Republican amici curiae brief in the Fischer v. United States case observed, the DOJ’s expansive application of Section 1512(c) “criminalizes political conduct and grants the Department of Justice nearly unfettered discretion to prosecute Americans based on the perceived morality of their political beliefs.” The Supreme Court would eventually reject the Government’s interpretation of Section 1512(c) in Fischer v. United States. Unfortunately for the innocent, by that point the statute had been used to sentence 133 defendants and many had long been imprisoned. And in their failed effort to punish those who “violated” Section 1512(c), the Department of Justice attempted to mislead the D.C. Circuit by effectively rewriting the law to “expand the sentencing enhancement beyond the bounds of its normal textual connotation and interpretive commentary.” United States v. Brock, 94 F.4th 39, 56-57 (D.C. Cir. 2024).  The history of similar abuses is detailed in Conviction Machine and LICENSED TO LIE.
   8. Over-sentencing. In many cases, the Biden Department of Justice demanded sentences exceeding federal guidelines and exceeding the sentences they sought in extremely violent and widespread riots that took place in D.C. in the summer of 2020, not to mention Portland and New York. Many D.C. federal judges were happy to go along with this charade.  As D.C. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden observed, “I think the U.S. attorney would have more credibility if it was evenhanded in its concern about riots and mobs in this city.” In Portland, after rioters violently clashed with federal agents and threw fire bombs at a federal courthouse, the Biden Administration dismissed more than “one-third” of those cases—including dropping charges against four defendants who committed felony assault against federal officers.
   9. Horrific, inhumane conditions of confinement—was reserved for and inflicted on J6 prisoners. January 6 prisoners were subjected to solitary confinement for trivial and legally improper reasons. In addition, many were combat vets, disabled with PTSD from war, and policemen or first responders— who were singled out immediately and treated worse than more serious criminals—despite their service to the nation.  Most experienced prolonged confinement in solitary cells—“the hole.” One January 6 defendant—a three-bronze-star Army Ranger who served 20 years and intervened to keep an older woman from being beaten to death—has been imprisoned for four years, denied bond, and still has not had a trial. One January 6 prisoner described being locked in solitary confinement for four months for reasons including “helping other Jan. 6 defendants in prison receive support from outside groups.” A prisoner with cancer at the “D.C. Gulag” finally was ordered released to home confinement after a federal judge found conditions at the facility to be “deplorable.” That same judge had “zero confidence” that the D.C. jail would properly treat the cancer or that the accused would not face retaliation.  Other January 6 prisoners were beaten by other inmates and denied medical care,  forced to live with clogged toilets and sewage, and denied the opportunity to confer with their lawyers. Prisoner Ryan Samsel “was severely beaten by correctional officers,” suffered blindness in one eye, a detached retina, and a skull fracture.  Conditions in the D.C. Gulag were so egregious they were required to move other prisoners to a better facility, but they kept the J6 political prisoners in the Gulag.
   10. Prolonged confinement without trial. In violation of the Constitution’s right to a speedy trial, January 6 prisoners have been denied bail pending trial and forced to endure months or years in prison waiting for their trials. The DOJ improperly brought charges without being remotely ready to prove their case, before reviewing all the evidence (including exculpatory evidence), demanding judges acquiesce to their demands for delays—causing prolonged incarceration. The government suppressed favorable evidence and trickled out what they did provide.  Courts have reprimanded DOJ prosecutors for sloppy case preparation, for bringing charges without an indictment, and for violations of Rule 5 of Federal Criminal Procedure when defendants were arrested outside of the charging district (DC).
   11. Americans Have Withstood a Double Standard for more than four years which completely undermines trust in any of our law enforcement institutions from the FBI through the federal judiciary. As noted above, the Biden Department of Justice pursued misdemeanor January 6 cases while dismissing with prejudice felony cases against Portland rioters for assaulting federal officers. The double standard when it comes to J6 protesters has been apparent from the start—from raiding the homes of misdemeanor offenders, abusing the law, exaggerating the offenses, and stacking charges to lying to courts about sentencing guidelines and inflicting torturous conditions in confinement.  Notable men like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were imprisoned for misdemeanors Democrats were never prosecuted for.  Americans have an innate sense of fairness which has been repeatedly violated by this politicized harshness.  The Rule of Law died—nothing has been fair and impartial.
   12. Impossibility of a fair and impartial trial in D.C. It was impossible to get a fair trial in federal court in the District of Columbia.  Everyone knew it, and no judge did anything about it.    In every case, change of venue was denied, despite the clear bias of the jury pool fueled by incessant, propagandized media coverage.  In one poll of DC registered voters, 73% of respondents believed any individual who made their way inside the Capitol on January 6 should be convicted of insurrection. In a similar poll, 71% of the potential DC jury pool thought the accused were guilty—a stunning prejudgment in a system where the system must treat defendants as “innocent until proven guilty.”  Yet another poll demonstrated that “over 40% of the DC Community stated they believe all the Events of January 6^th were racially motivated.  As a result of these constitutional violations and biased juries, prosecutors enjoyed a nearly 100% conviction rate.

            The Democrats’ lawfare, set-up, suppression of evidence, abusive prosecutions, grossly disparate sentences, and torturous conditions of confinement have destroyed public confidence in our legal system.  In the interest of Justice and to heal our nation, President Trump should immediately pardon in full or at least commute the sentence of each J6 prisoner –regardless of whether he or she is still detained pretrial, after trial, or has been released.  Each has already served more time than if they had received a proper sentence for any real offense they might have committed.   Release of ALL the J6 prisoners is an important part of the mandate We the People gave President Trump by an overwhelming majority on November 5.

On January 20, 2025, Americans are watching for the first “promise kept.”

1 Sidney Powell is a former federal prosecutor in multiple districts. She served almost ten years and represented the United States as lead counsel on appeal in more than 350 appeals, with a total of more than 500 federal appeals in her career. She is the author of LICENSED TO LIE: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice (2014) and co- author with Harvey Silverglate of Conviction Machine. She has lived both books. She represented and freed Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.) and exposed the egregious government misconduct by the FBI and DOJ against him.