They held signs that described D.C. jail as a “gulag” and called Jan. 6, 2021 “an inside job.” They wore red caps, including one that read, “Trump was right about everything.” And they lamented that there have not been reparations paid to self-described “J6ers.”
Five years after Trump supporters struck police officers with their fists and flagpoles, looked for lawmakers as they hid behind locked doors and erected a makeshift gallows, some of the people convicted of crimes for their actions on Jan. 6 retraced their steps from the Ellipse to the U.S. Capitol building.
Their march on Tuesday drew more than 100 people. They mourned those who died and they amplified a recasting of the official public narrative of an attack that halted the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history.
They repeated false claims that the election was stolen and while they expressed thanks to Trump for granting sweeping clemency to nearly 1,600 Capitol riot defendants in one of his opening acts as president, they spoke of wanting more.
Enrique “Henry” Tarrio, a leader of the Proud Boys, who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy in the attack on the U.S. Capitol — and then pardoned by Trump — stood in front of the crowd gathered at the Ellipse, where five years ago Trump told the crowd to “fight” for him. On this anniversary, Tarrio called for those who handled Jan. 6 cases to be fired and prosecuted.
“The thing that I’m searching for is retribution, retaliation,” said Tarrio, who was not among the pro-Trump crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, because of a prior arrest. “I don’t want any violence to happen to those people that perpetrated these crimes against humanity, against Americans. But I want them to pay. They made an example out of us, and we need to make an example out of them.”
These types of demands have been amplified under the Trump administration — which unveiled a websiteon Tuesday dedicated to Trump’s version of Jan. 6, 2021, recasting the violent mob as peaceful protesters and blaming Democrats and Capitol Police for the attack.
Among those pardoned was David Dempsey, 38, who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting law enforcement with a dangerous weapon.
While standing next to the makeshift gallows on Jan. 6, 2021, court records show Dempsey was asked what he thought of the “work of art.” He replied: “This isn’t just art. This is necessary.” He called for hanging Democratic politicians, including former president Barack Obama. Then, records show, he battled officers in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, using water bottles, a pole, pepper spray and a metal crutch.
“I did that stuff,” Dempsey said while standing among the crowd on Tuesday, but claimed he was reacting to the aggression he saw from police. He said he came on Tuesday to support other pardoned ‘J6ers’ and Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from Southern California who was fatally shot as she attempted to force entry into the Speaker’s Lobby adjacent to the House chamber.
“No mother deserves to lose her child, regardless of the circumstance or political ideologies,” said Dempsey, who lives in the San Fernando Valley area of California and works in masonry. “Some people feel she’s a hero. Other people feel she’s a traitor.”
Babbitt would be the first death reported Jan. 6. Those gathered on Tuesday also honored Kevin Greeson, 55, of Athens, Alabama, and Benjamin Philips, 50, of Ringtown, Pennsylvania, who died of natural causes due to cardiovascular disease; Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia, who died of accidental acute amphetamine intoxication.
Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who suffered two strokes, died Jan. 7. And four police officers later died by suicide.
Babbitt’s name has become its own symbol within the MAGA movement. Her supporters argue that she wasn’t breaking the law when she tried to leap through a door. They have compared her to George Floyd, the Black man murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. Her face is splashed on fliers, her name repeated at vigils, in rap lyrics and in social media hashtags like #justiceforashli. Trump has described Babbitt as an “innocent, wonderful, incredible woman” and has called Jan. 6, 2021, a “day of love.”
The Trump administration has also settled a wrongful-death lawsuit for nearly $5 million with Babbitt’s family, despite an internal Capitol Police investigation that cleared the officer who shot her of any wrongdoing and the decision by the Justice Department not to pursue criminal charges, finding it was reasonable for the officer to believe he was firing in self-defense or defense of members of Congress.
On Tuesday, those gathered demanded the Justice Department arrest officers they say were responsible for the deaths of Babbitt and Boyland. One speaker said those officers and those “responsible for January 6, stealing the election,” needed to be “Maduro’d,” referring to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro who was captured by the U.S. military.
“We’re not going to stop,” said Robert Morss, who was sentenced to more than five years in prison for assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, obstruction of an official proceeding, and robbery. “We’re here to fix history, set the record straight, and we’re going to make America great again, whether they like it or not.”
They faced few counterprotesters. The U.S. Secret Service briefly detained a woman near the corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Ave NW. Those in the crowd had surrounded her, broken her megaphone and called her derogatory four-letter names.
Another counterprotester from Fairfax County held a sign saying Jan. 6 defendants belonged in prison while Dan Mariano, 32, of D.C. held one that quoted then-Vice President Mike Pence: “It doesn’t take courage to break the law. It takes courage to uphold the law.”
“Political violence is now part of the new age in America,” said Mariano, who works in marketing. “All these people here think that they’re warriors, their patriots … they’re not. They’re violating the law, and they think that that is courageous, and it’s not. It’s a violation of our patriotic principles and of our democratic duty as Americans.”
But those marching on Tuesday said they were the ones upholding democracy. They chanted “U-S-A” and sang the national anthem.
One of the speakers on Tuesday was Shane Jenkins, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
After Jan. 6, authorities said Jenkins sent a message that read: “I have murder in my heart and head. I love you, I’m not over this election, as our president so eloquently stated yesterday bull—-, I am sorry man, I wanna scream and cry at all the same time.”
On Tuesday, he repeated claims for “accountability” and said he was the one “attacked” by police at the U.S. Capitol.
“We want somebody to be arrested. They had no problem hunting us down like outlaws and like criminals,” Jenkins said. “So we will continue to be here. We will raise hell, peacefully.”
The post Jan. 6 defendants, supporters march, demanding ‘retribution’ for prosecutions appeared first on Washington Post.
