‘Accepting the pardon would be an insult to the Capitol Police officers, to the rule of law, to our nation,’ says Hemphill
President Donald Trump may have granted clemency to more than 1,500 people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but one of them, 71-year-old Boise, Idaho resident Pamela Hemphill is rejecting her pardon.
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She says Trump and his supporters are “trying to rewrite history by saying that it was not a riot, it wasn’t an insurrection. I don’t want to be a part of their trying to rewrite what happened that day.”
Hemphill was told about the pardon by her lawyer on Tuesday, however, she directed a formal rejection letter to be filed.
However, the prisoners’ applications were dismissed by a District Court judge. He pointed to a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found that a prisoner who had his death sentence commuted by former President William Taft could not refuse it because he didn’t give his consent. The Supreme Court ruled then that the president did not need the prisoner’s consent for the commutation to take effect.
Former MAGA granny says she ‘lost her critical thinking ability’
For a time, Hemphill called herself “MAGA Granny” but now she is clear that she no longer supports Mr. Trump or believes the unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
She said that a therapist had helped change her view of the attack by telling her she was “not a victim of Jan. 6; I was a volunteer. I lost my critical thinking.”
She shared videos of herself participating in the attack on the Capitol. Subsequently, she pleaded guilty in 2022 to one misdemeanour count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol building. In exchange, prosecutors dropping three more misdemeanour charges.
A week and a half after the riot, an FBI agent wrote in a court filing, that a tip was received that included a screenshot of a Hemphill post: “It’s not going to be a FUN Trump Rally that is planned for January 6th, it’s a WAR!” Another post showed her holding a large firearm with a caption that she was on her way to Washington for Jan. 6.
The FBI also said it found YouTube footage of Hemphill from a Jan. 5, 2021 event co-hosted by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. In the video, Hemphill could be heard saying she would try to get into the Capitol. “Keep an eye on me tomorrow,” she allegedly said.
That next day, Hemphill passed through barriers at the Capitol and invited others into the building: “You just gotta come in. … It’s your house. Come on in.”
Capitol Police came to her rescue that day
Hemphill was undergoing breast cancer treatment when she travelled to Washington for the protest.
After Trump’s “March to Save America” rally, she began talking to a group of Proud Boys and followed them, becoming part of the crowd that forced its way through barricaded doors and attacked Capitol Police officers, forcing lawmakers to flee.
As the crowd grew more violent, she was injured. But Capitol police came to her rescue, she says. “The officers pulled me up and put me behind them.” Hemphill said it’s the law enforcement officers with the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department, including the ones who protected her, who are most on her mind this week.
Trump rioters injured about 140 of them during the attack, according to the United States Attorney’s Office. “The pardon is a slap in their face,” Hemphill said. “It’s like the country let them down. They were the heroes that day.”
The lack of respect shown to police officers has influenced her changed opinion about Trump and the insurrection, she says.
She came to believe that she had been in a cult. Her family even held an intervention after she was released from jail.
“It’s really weird when you come out of a cult. It’s like you look back and you go, what was I thinking?”
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