January 6th Defendants

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

January 6 participants are touring right-wing media and calling for retribution following Trump’s pardon

Some say those who prosecuted the crimes should be “put behind bars” and face “extreme accountability”

Written by Payton Armstrong & Jack Winstanley

Research contributions from Alex Kaplan

Published

January 6 participants who received pardons or commuted sentences from President Donald Trump are now demanding retribution, including by calling for prosecutors to “be imprisoned” and “put behind bars,” saying there needs to be “a prosecution for perjury” against U.S. Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and David Lazarus, and declaring that “the next obvious step would be fire all prosecutors, all FBI agents who were involved in this witch hunt.” Some have also discussed “class action lawsuits” against investigators and prosecutors.

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  • Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of January 6 participants, and right-wing media cheered the move

    • Trump issued “full, complete and unconditional” pardons to January 6 participants, including “violent offenders,” and commuted the sentences of members of extremist groups who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. According to The New York Times, “The pardons will also wipe the slate clean for violent offenders who went after the police on Jan. 6 with baseball bats, two-by-fours and bear spray and are serving prison terms, in some cases of more than a decade. … In a separate move, Mr. Trump commuted the prison sentences of five other Proud Boys, some of whom had been convicted at trial with Mr. [Enrique] Tarrio. He also commuted the sentences of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, and eight of his subordinates. Altogether, the commutations erased more than 100 years of prison time for the 14 defendants, almost all of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.” [The New York Times, 1/20/25]
    • Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News Sunday that people who committed violence on January 6 should “obviously” not be pardoned. Other prominent Republicans, including some in Trump’s administration, previously advocated for people who attacked police officers to face consequences. Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) even tied her stance to Vance’s comments, saying, “I agree with JD.” [The Associated Press, 1/12/25; Project Democracy, 1/13/25]
    • Right-wing media praised the move while glossing over pardons and commutations granted to those previously convicted of violent crimes or seditious conspiracy. On War Room, Steve Bannon celebrated “blanket” pardons. On Fox News, OutKick founder Clay Travis declared, “I love the pardon of the Jan 6 political prisoners.” [Media Matters, 1/21/25; Real America's Voice, War Room, 1/21/25; Fox News, America's Newsroom, 1/21/25]

  • January 6 participants called for retribution, prosecutions after pardons

  • Enrique Tarrio

    • On Infowars, Tarrio, the newly pardoned and freed former leader of the Proud Boys, called for retribution: “The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars.” Tarrio suggested that prosecutors “didn't care about the evidence. They cared about putting Trump supporters in prison,” adding, “Now it's our turn.” Tarrio also said that “they need to be imprisoned. We need to find and put them behind bars for what they did. They need to pay for what they did.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 1/21/25]
    • Tarrio had been serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy. As reported by The New York Times, “While Mr. Tarrio was not in Washington that day, prosecutors say he helped prepare his compatriots for street fights and remained in touch with them while the mob — with the Proud Boys in the lead — overran the Capitol.” [CBS News, 1/23/25; The New York Times, 1/22/25]

  • Stewart Rhodes

    • On Infowars, newly freed Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, whose sentence Trump commuted, claimed that U.S. Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and David Lazarus “lied on the stand and we caught them,” demanding that there be “a prosecution for perjury.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 1/22/25]
    • Rhodes had been serving an 18-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy. The Associated Press reported that “using dozens of encrypted messages, recordings and surveillance video, prosecutors made the case that Rhodes began shortly after the 2020 election to prepare an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of presidential power,” and “rallied his followers to fight to defend Trump, discussed the prospect of a ‘bloody’ civil war and warned the Oath Keepers may have to ‘rise up in insurrection’ to defeat Biden if Trump didn’t act.” [The New York Times, 1/22/25; The Associated Press, 11/29/22]

  • Brandon Straka

    • On Newsmax, Brandon Straka, who was newly pardoned, said he would “do anything I can to go after any of these people who did this to me and others” for “the big lie that was January 6.” Straka told Newsmax, “I am going to actively pursue any avenue available to me to try to get justice from what the government has done to me and any of these Big Tech companies or anyone else who participated in the big lie that was January 6.” [Newsmax, Newsline, 1/21/25]
    • Straka pleaded guilty in 2021 to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to three years of probation. In 2022, CNN reported that Straka “admitted to recording himself telling the mob to ‘go go go’ as they reached the Capitol and telling rioters who were wrestling a shield away from a US Capitol Police officer to ‘take it, take it.’” During the Newsmax appearance, Straka claimed that he was “forced” to make that statement as part of his plea deal and he “did not do any of these things. They were total lies.” [KETV Omaha, 1/22/25; CNN, 1/24/22]

  • Alex Sheppard

    • On Stew Peters’ show, January 6 participant Alex Sheppard celebrated his pardon and said, “The next obvious step would be fire all prosecutors, all FBI agents who were involved in this witch hunt.” He also agreed with Peters that those who “set up” January 6 and carried out the prosecutions must be “tried for a coup. … And when they're convicted, they need to face extreme accountability.” Sheppard said that the pardons were “an important first step” and noted that “there's a lot of talk about class action lawsuits going on right now.” He went on to say that he “would rather we have some sort of situation where we just take the pensions of all these people who went after us, judges included,” suggesting that “the people who have been locked up for four years straight” deserve “reparations.” [Rumble, The Stew Peters Show, 1/21/25]
    • According to the U.S. attorney’s office for D.C., Sheppard “was among the first rioters to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and joined others in overrunning multiple police lines established to stop the mob’s spread.” Sheppard was sentenced to 19 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release on five offenses including a felony, and reportedly “got an early release after the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case challenging the Department of Justice’s use of obstruction charges.” [U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, 9/5/23; Ohio Capitol Journal, 1/22/25]

  • Edward “Jake” Lang

    • On Prophets and Patriots, a newly pardoned Jake Lang said that God is “a God of justice” and touted an organization he founded to get “accountability,” adding he and other January 6 participants are “at home right now with a pencil and paper writing down the names” of individuals they want to subject to lawsuits. Lang said that “make accountability great again is the new MAGA movement because now we’re in a position of, you know, power, political power with the Republican Party and Donald Trump taking back all three branches of government.” He said that “we’ve orchestrated a $50 billion lawsuit on behalf of the Jan 6ers” against the Department of Justice and laid out his plans to name individuals in lawsuits: “We named, obviously, the D.O.J., but there are many prosecutors, many FBI agents, many jailers of ours, Federal Bureau of Prisons, there were so many agencies that colluded. ... We are going to be naming individuals and agencies — Joint Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Attorneys Office — so this is going to be like reading like a scroll of people that were involved. And right now that's one of our main things that we're doing. I’ve got Jan 6ers at home right now with a pencil and paper writing down the names of the prison guards, of the U.S. marshals, of the prosecutors.” [ElijahStreams, Prophets and Patriots, 1/23/25]
    • Lang was in jail awaiting trial for 11 charges relating to his activity on January 6. As reported by The New York Times, “In social media posts by other rioters, Mr. Lang could be seen swinging a baseball bat at police officers and thrusting a riot shield in their direction, according to the court filings.” While in prison, Lang organized the J6 Pardon Coalition, a petition effort lobbying Trump to pardon and end all ongoing investigations into January 6 participants. Lang also attempted to create a militia organization, dubbed the North American Patriot and Liberty Militia, with right-wing media figures while in prison. [The New York Times, 1/22/25; Southern Poverty Law Center, 1/17/25; Media Matters, 6/7/24]