Jan. 6 defendants reflect on crime and punishment

WASHINGTON—Rachel Powell was watching coverage of President Donald Trump’s inauguration from the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington. She sat two miles from the Capitol, awaiting a resentencing for charges stemming from Jan. 6, 2021, when Powell and thousands of pro-Trump protesters breached the building and temporarily paused the certification of the 2020 election. Less than 24 hours later, she was walking outside the jail with no criminal record after Trump signed a pardon for all Jan. 6 defendants.

“They just left me in this holding cell. And finally, the marshal showed up and she got me out, and I’ll be home soon,” Powell told a group of supporters and media outside the DC jail. She wore a pink MAGA hat. “Thank you, Trump, I love you!”

On his first night back in the Oval Office, Trump signed a sweeping pardon for 1,500 Americans, expunging their records of all federal charges. For 14 people convicted of more severe crimes like seditious conspiracy, he commuted sentences instead but said the White House is conducting “further research.” The decision is surprising Washington and motivating political supporters who say the justice system was weaponized against the Jan. 6 defendants.

“It’s one of the few presidential powers that is clearly set forth in the Constitution,” Concordia University professor Graham Dodds told WORLD. “It’s unlimited. There are very few, if any, constraints on the president’s ability to issue pardons. And presidents have found it can be a very attractive thing to do. But by freeing convicted criminals who violently attacked police and law enforcement officials, Trump is going against the normal Republican support for the police and law enforcement.”

The scope of the pardons surprised some members of Congress. Only a few months ago, then–Sen. J.D. Vance, now the vice president, said in a Fox News interview that anyone who protested peacefully should be pardoned, but anyone who committed violence should not be. In the weeks leading up to the inauguration, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., told WORLD he believed the Trump team was looking at pardons on a case-by-case basis. During her confirmation hearing, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi said that she could not comment on blanket pardons.

“I’ll look at each and advise on a case-by-case basis, just like during my entire career as a prosecutor,” Bondi told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. “But I want to be clear: I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country.”

Trump signed the pardons while Bondi’s confirmation was still pending. And unlike during his campaign promises, it includes anyone convicted or charged with violent crimes.

“Anybody who is convicted of assault on a police officer, I can’t get there, at all,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters in the Capitol. “I think it was a bad idea.”

The FBI investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, was one of the most extensive in the agency’s history. Roughly 1,200 defendants had already been charged and sentenced. The penalties ranged from a few days in prison to years on charges of seditious conspiracy. The Justice Department said last month that about 300 cases were still pending. About 30 defendants were being held at the DC Central Detention Facility, which is commonly used as a pretrial holding area. The facility started slowly releasing Jan. 6 prisoners starting Monday night, but paperwork delays angered supporters. They gathered with American flags and Trump campaign posters and materials to await the releases. Leaders from the Oath Keepers, including newly released founder Stewart Rhodes, and the Proud Boys waited with the crowd.

Rachel Powell was known on the internet as “Pink Hat Lady” or “Bullhorn Lady.” Videos taken during the riots showed her carrying an ice axe and a pipe into the Capitol and using them as a battering ram. She used a bullhorn to encourage others to break windows and enter the building. She was arrested a month after the riots. Her Pennsylvania home was raided. In April 2023, Powell was found guilty of three felonies and six misdemeanors, including civil disorder. She was sentenced to 57 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release. Powell said she deserved the pardon because the sentence was unjust. But she said she regrets her behavior on Jan. 6.

“I regret that we didn’t just sit down, Martin Luther King–style—thousands of patriots just sitting,” Powell told reporters outside the jail on Tuesday. “I feel like a fool because I just walked into something unexpected, and it doesn’t excuse my behavior that day. But I can’t go back because I can only go forward. So let’s just go forward in our country and heal and make America great again.”

Robert Morss was convicted on three charges: assault, robbery, and obstruction of an official proceeding. Due to the Supreme Court ruling, the third charge was removed. After more than three years in prison, he was living in a halfway house in Pittsburgh until Monday night. After hearing he was pardoned, Morss drove to Washington and joined the crowd outside the DC jail.

“There were definitely moments that day that 100% got out of hand,” Morss told me. “But I think our bigger crime was actually standing up for what we believe in, and that’s what terrified the Department of Justice the most. We’re gathering now to support these individuals getting out of prison once and for all so that we can support Donald Trump becoming the president for the third time, winning a third successful presidential campaign.”

Morss called his jury a kangaroo court and his conviction bogus. He calls himself a political hostage, a term supporters outside the jail told the media to use instead of defendant. Outside the DC jail, most Trump supporters told WORLD they see Trump’s pardon as a return to justice. One defendant released on Tuesday, Jake Lang, had been awaiting trial since February 2021. Supporters said the lack of speedy trial shows the DOJ was punishing political prisoners. They said that the Jan. 6 riots were not actually violent, but were wrongfully portrayed as such in the media.

“This experience made a league of indomitable American patriots,” Morss said. “It’s going to be on us to maintain this republic, and so what the Democrats and some RINOs [Republicans in Name Only] designed for evil God always intended for good, and so this is really backfiring on them.”

One convicted protester said she would not accept the pardon. Pam Hemphill now calls herself the “ex-MAGA granny,” but she was at the riots on Jan. 6, 2021. She told WORLD her brother gifted her a visit to Washington to see Trump speak at the Ellipse that day. She heard from the crowd around her that Trump would be going to the Capitol, and she thought he was going to address Congress. She wanted to record the event on her Facebook livestream.

“I should have left, but you lose all your critical thinking in a crowd like that,” Hemphill told WORLD in a phone call. “I didn’t know it was illegal.”

Hemphill is seen on video saying, “It’s a war.” Later, she thought police were moving barricades to let the people in, and she yelled, “Come on in, it’s your house!”

“I don’t like to use those words, fight and war, anymore,” Hemphill said. “I got involved with MAGA groups in Idaho because they told me Democrats wanted to turn this into a communist nation. And I got scared.”

Hemphill was charged with picketing and parading. During the crowd surge, she fell and was bruised and eventually hid behind a line of police officers. Hemphill says in the confusion, she still thought police were going to let everyone in, like the surge before the opening of concert gates, until an officer told her none of this was allowed.

“My heart went to my feet. I knew I was in trouble,” Hemphill said. “I was so naive, but I had a choice. I could have left, but I just kept thinking that I have to video all of this.”

She pleaded guilty and spent 60 days in a women’s federal prison in Dublin, Calif., in a unit with lifetime felons. The prison was shut down in April due to rampant sexual violence. But Hemphill says she thinks she received an appropriate consequence.

“I didn’t mean to break the law, but I wasn’t a victim,” she told me. “I went home and did my own praying and self-reflection and got myself right.”

When she heard that Trump was pardoning her and scores of others, Hemphill walked outside and screamed. She has not received any email or communication from the Justice Department or the White House, nor has her probation officer. Hemphill says that when there are clear instructions, she will reject the pardon.

“It sets a precedent that what happened that day was okay,” Hemphill said. “They’re trying to rewrite history, but I don’t want to be part of their narrative. If I take that pardon, I’m part of their version of history.”

On Wednesday, House Republicans announced they will launch a new select subcommittee to investigate the events surrounding Jan. 6, 2021. Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia will chair the subcommittee, which will be housed under the House Judiciary Committee.