TODAY, besides being the beautiful Christian Feast of the Epiphany, marks the fourth anniversary of the riot at the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
What took place that day in Washington DC has been described by self-serving ostensibly progressive elites as an ‘insurrection’, which it was manifestly not. Even more ludicrously, at least according to that unimpeachable source of truth Wikipedia, it was a ‘self-coup’, a variant of a coup d’état ‘in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power through illegal means through the actions of themselves and/or their supporters’.
The noisy and occasionally violent affray at the Capitol was a godsend for Democrats, ever ready to weaponise literally anything or anyone to eliminate Donald Trump from the political scene. Indeed, it has always been about Trump; those supporters charged with offences at the building that houses the legislative branch of government were a means to an end, not the end itself. To borrow a phrase Jane Fonda used to describe covid, J6 was ‘God’s gift to the left’, and, as with the pandemic, our friends on the left have made good use of what happened that day, seeking to destroy Trump by attacking his supporters.
They tried, tried very hard indeed, even holding cringe-inducing committee hearings in the House of Representatives and hiring a veteran television executive to film them, which bore a remarkable resemblance to a show trial. As to be expected in such a sham legal proceeding, committee members, who included two Republicans known for their visceral hatred of Trump, recommended he be criminally charged with, among other things, ‘assisting, aiding, and comforting an insurrection’. But the target of the left’s unremitting hatred survived, even miraculously dodging a bullet, to be elected president in November. For that, those of us who love America and Western civilisation should be very grateful.
January 6 was undoubtedly a seminal event and will be argued over by historians (provided they are allowed to argue) for many years to come. Its legacy lives on, having become, for the leftward-leaning elites who continue to rule over us, the gift that keeps on giving. Indeed, it is still being used to attack Trump and his supporters, even now, after his victory in the November 5 presidential election.
In March 2024, in these pages I discussed the outrageous injustices to which those arrested for entering the Capitol on January 6 2021 have been subjected, and continue to be subjected. I also detailed some of the appalling treatment they have received in prison, treatment that should shame all Americans, especially those who claim to be progressive and enlightened. In what has been described as the biggest criminal investigation in Department of Justice history, lives have been destroyed, families broken apart, decent patriotic Americans portrayed as insurrectionists and accused of being terrorists, and innocent people thrown in an evil-smelling prison known for its squalor and brutality.
According to Julie Kelly of RealClear Investigations, who has done more to unravel the complexities of the events of January 6 and expose the lies told about those events than any other journalist I know, more than 1,560 people have been charged for federal crimes never before used against political protesters. A thousand have been convicted, with around 650 being sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to up to 22 years in the case of Enrique Terrio, Afro-Cuban founder of the Proud Boys, a group described as ‘far-right and neo-fascist’, given a so-called ‘terror enhancement’ to his conviction for seditious conspiracy. He wasn’t even present at the Capitol on January 6.
Terrio’s savage sentence must surely be seen as an outrageous violation of justice, one unbefitting of a nation that calls itself a liberal democracy, and will surely come to haunt us in years to come. As will the five known suicides among those awaiting trial for supposed crimes committed at the Capitol on that fateful day, tragedies that no amount of pardons and commutations can ever expunge, tragedies that affect entire families and the communities in which they live.
Having said this, however, Trump’s election in November undoubtedly raised the hopes of those whose lives were torn apart and became collateral damage of the liberal establishment’s war against the former president and everything for which he stands. His win certainly filled me with hope, along with millions and millions of other ordinary Americans who are sick and tired of the woke onslaught on our culture and nation, being told they are racist and God knows what else, and lectured to by well-heeled, self-righteous hypocrites. While the economy played a probably decisive role in Kamala Harris’s defeat, I think a significant role in Trump’s victory was played by honorable men and women who despise racism and go out of their way to act without prejudice to their fellow Americans, regardless of what colour they are or to which identity group they have been assigned, who are called bigots because they don’t believe a man can have a cervix, who hold that the most qualified person should be given the job or college scholarship, who don’t lose sleep about the prospect of the earth burning to a crisp in the next few decades, or who simply love their country.
Trump has made no secret of his intention to pardon those J6 defendants who were not charged or convicted of violent offences. He might go further than this and pardon all defendants, regardless of their offences, especially given the impossibility of finding an impartial jury in Washington DC, a city that voted 92.4 per cent for Kamala Harris and where the J6 defendants were tried. Given this demographic reality, in addition to the appalling levels of corruption involved in their arrests and convictions, he would be well within his rights to do so. Justice and decency cry out that he rights these terrible wrongs as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the minatory and horribly politicised Justice Department, having been unable to stop Trump’s path to the White House, are now making haste to arrest and convict those J6 rioters who have thus far slipped through the net. Indeed, shortly after Trump’s resounding victory, lawyers working for the DOJ were instructed to carry on as usual and to expedite the judicial process against J6 defendants.
Expecting clemency from the incoming administration, lawyers acting on behalf of Christopher Carnell, who was convicted in February 2020 of non-violent offences committed in the US Capitol on January 6, asked, the day after the election, for a delay in his sentencing. Predictably enough, Judge Beryl Howell rejected the request. Carnell, who was 18 at the time of his supposed crimes, and having been pursued by the FBI for close to four years, was sentenced on December 13 last year to six months in federal prison.
Images of Carnell, walking almost nonchalantly around the US Capitol as if he were on a school trip, show a fresh-faced boy, looking younger than his 18 years. I doubt his face had ever seen a razor. He reminded me of some of the young lads I was teaching until quite recently, a little feckless perhaps but essentially decent and well-meaning. He has his own name emblazoned on his backpack, and is wearing that sure sign of someone with Nazi sympathies, a Trump hat.
If Christopher Carnell is the image of a violent far-right insurrectionist, American democracy has nothing to fear. But his conviction and incarceration are an affront to what America claims to stand for. President-elect Trump will earn the gratitude of justice-loving people here in this country and elsewhere if he pardons Carnell and the thousands like him after he becomes the 47th President of the United States two weeks from today.
