‘Packing our stuff’: January 6 inmates prepare for Trump pardon | Donald Trump News

Washington, DC – A flash from the prison window was met with cheers from the small crowd waiting outside.

The signal has become a nightly ritual at the DC Central Detention Facility. As the sunlight begins to fade, the prisoners inside try to wave the lights as a signal to their supporters.

But that action caused some consternation among the dozen or so people who gathered on the pavement Sunday, despite the frigid temperatures.

It was the eve of the fourth anniversary of January 6, 2021, when thousands stormed the United States Capitol in a dramatic attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.

Nearly 900 days ago, a group gathered to show their support for those sentenced in the protest, some of whom are being held inside the DC Detention Center.

Still, the spirits of those inside were high, in large part because of Trump’s victory in the November election. It was an unprecedented reversal of political fortunes that saw the president-elect bounce back from defeat in 2020.

His second term will start in just two weeks. As part of his plan, Trump has promised amnesty for those convicted of their actions four years ago, in the attack on the Capitol.

“The energy here today was absolutely amazing,” said Dominic Box, who was convicted of trespassing and disorderly conduct, in a phone call from jail.

His words were broadcast by fans outside, who were holding mobile phones in the tunnel.

Box expressed his hope for Trump’s inauguration. “We expect that those remissions will decrease, and at the end of the week,” he said.

“Many men, including me, started packing our things,” he added. “We will all be leaving these doors for the last time.”

At least 1,583 people have been charged in connection with the events of January 6, 2021, according to the US Department of Justice.

About 608 of them were charged with assaulting, resisting, or obstructing law enforcement. That includes 174 people charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

‘Political hostages’ or rebellion?

In many ways, pardoning those convicted on January 6 would be a huge success for Trump.

The Republican leader has long claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was “stolen” by widespread voter fraud.

Trump, too, has faced legal trouble for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

In a Georgia state trial and a federal trial in Washington, DC, he was accused of leading a conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election. DC’s case has been dismissed, due to his re-election.

But Trump dismissed the criminal charges as a “political witch hunt”. Drawing an analogy with his own situation, he described the sentences given to the defendants on January 6 – especially those who were not violent – as unjust.

On various occasions, he has called those accused “political prisoners” and “hostages”, saying that his administration will start reviewing their cases “in the first hour” of his second term.

Trump’s statements highlight a different narrative that emerged on January 6.

Trump supporters have largely dismissed the protest as a simple protest, while Democrats have highlighted the violence of the attack, which came as lawmakers tried to secure the 2020 vote.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden again described the January 6 attack as “a real threat to democracy”.

In a column for The Washington Post, Biden criticized Trump’s efforts to rebrand the attack on the US Capitol as an act of patriotism.

“There has been a relentless effort to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day,” Biden wrote. “Describing this as a protest that has just gotten out of hand. This did not happen.”

Some politicians and right-wing institutions have also criticized efforts to downplay the January 6 attack.

For example, the Society for the Rule of Law, an organization founded by conservative lawyers and judges, has argued that the unusual nature of the attack on the US Capitol warrants a harsher punishment.

“[Trump’s] the statements promising amnesty to the rebels make a mockery of the law, and we strongly condemn it,” said the group.

‘I hope you will take me’

But for the protesters gathered outside the DC detention center, there was little question that the prosecution was fraught with injustice.

Many accused the law enforcement of wanting to hold the riots of January 6. Others also said that the violent actions of a few were used to anoint all those present.

Authorities have repeatedly denied those claims.

In his broadcast call, Box reiterated the oft-repeated claim that no Capitol Police officers were killed in the attack.

Capitol Police, however, maintain that five deaths are related to the riot: One officer, Brian Sicknick, was beaten to death a day later after suffering two strokes, and four died by suicide in the months that followed.

Nevertheless, Box filed his actions on January 6 as an act of free speech, protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

“None of the defendants of January 6, whether they’re in jail or on the FBI list or walking free today, have done anything other than participate in what should be protected First Amendment activities, to address our grievances and hear our concerns in the world about what without question. in the stolen election in 2020,” said Box.

Brandon Fellows, 30, was also charged in the events of January 6. He spent almost three years in the DC jail, after prosecutors showed evidence that he entered the US Capitol through a broken window and smoked marijuana in the office of Senator Jeff Merkley.

He was later charged with contempt for an outburst of anger during the trial.

But Fellows was released on probation, which limits him to an 80km (50-mile) radius around Washington, DC. He attended Sunday’s protest outside the detention center in DC wearing a Make America Great Again hat, a sign of his continued support for Trump.

“I just hope so [Trump] he’s taking me away, so I can go and start my life,” said Fellows, adding that he wants to restart the tree and chimney businesses he was doing before he was arrested.

‘Donald Trump’s Expansion’

The nightly vigils were first started by Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashley Babbitt, the woman who was shot and killed by Capitol police while trying to climb through a broken window on January 6.

Nicole Reffitt has been one of the main editors since then. Her husband, Guy Reffitt, was the first defendant on January 6 to be found guilty in 2022. After that, he moved to Washington, DC, from Texas to help other defendants navigate the courts.

“When you have the power of the United States government against you or your loved one, it’s a very scary and scary feeling,” he told Al Jazeera.

Guy Reffitt was convicted of public nuisance, obstructing the continued operation of a restricted building and a firearm.

A video recorded on January 6 shows Reffitt, a member of the Texas Three Percenters, saying, “I just want to see. [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s head hit all the king’s stairs on the way out.” He was sentenced to almost seven years in prison.

Hopeful that Trump’s impeachment is just around the corner, Nicole Reffitt insists that politics perverted justice in her husband’s case.

He and fellow protesters set up an “advent calendar” to mark the days until Trump’s impeachment on January 20.

“I saw half-truths and exaggerations being used as legal facts and a DC judge who saw my husband as an extension of Donald Trump,” Reffitt said. “That’s not the way justice should be played in America.”