American letter | At the corner of the forgiven

(Washington) The atmosphere is lighter at “Freedom Corner” since the election of Donald Trump.

Here, in front of the Washington detention center, they have prayed, everyone, every night since August 2022 for the release of those convicted on January 6, 2021.

They were heard.

I came in April, when it was still a distant dream. I returned there in mid-December; it is now about to come true.

There were a dozen of them that evening. Among them, Micki Witthoeft, one of the organizers of this vigil. His daughter, Ashli ​​Babbitt, was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer while trying to enter. The police officer was cleared after investigation, but for the mother, it is legalized murder.

There is also Sarah, 27 years old, daughter of Guy Reffitt, the first convicted. The man was a recruiting member of the 3 Percenters, a far-right militia. He was sentenced to 87 months in prison, even though he did not enter the Capitol. However, he was armed. It was his own son who reported him to the FBI.

“I’m still in contact with my brother, but it’s very difficult because we don’t see things the same way. Do I agree with everything my father does? No. But he had the right to make his opinions known. Thousands of people did it that day. I won’t defend every stupid thing my father did or said. But I know he’s not a bad person. He was the first to have his trial, and they had to make an example of him. »

As a result of a Supreme Court ruling last summer, a charge of obstructing Congress was dropped, and his sentence was reduced from 87 to 80 months. Sarah Reffitt now expects Trump to keep his promise and grant her father a pardon. The former and future president has repeatedly stated that he would pardon “the vast majority” of the approximately 1,000 convicted.

“I don’t think everyone should be pardoned because there were violent crimes,” said the young woman. Each case must be verified. »

This is the case of Brian Bettancourt, 25, a waiter in a restaurant in Maryland. He got five months for illegal trespass.

“People were a bit trapped,” he said. I entered through a window and almost passed out from the gas. Sometimes we just go with the flow. I was angry at the media for not telling the truth. But I wasn’t angry at the individuals.

“Sometimes I regret getting involved in politics because we don’t know how things can turn out. Even though I am pardoned, it was my decision, I don’t blame anyone else, and I paid. »

Brandon Fellows was released from prison after three years in May. He is proud to wear a jacket from the Border Control Agency (ICE), responsible for expulsions. He bought it on the internet and hopes to intimidate a few people. “It can make illegals think. The atmosphere has changed a lot since the election,” he says with a satisfied smile.

The 30-year-old had a small chimney sweeping business in upstate New York. He came to demonstrate on January 6, 2021 against the “theft” of the election, at Trump’s request.

“A friend and I arrived with baseball bats, helmets and vodka, to disinfect the cuts and to combat the pain. We were there to defend ourselves from Antifa [groupes d’extrême gauche]. Except that when we arrived at midnight, there were only 26 or 27 people. No Antifa. My friend brought all the equipment back to the car. Luckily, because I didn’t know we were going to enter the Capitol. Most thought Antifa was going to attack us. But it was not an insurrection. We don’t bring baseball bats and pepper spray to overthrow the government!

“I went in because I believed we could. Hundreds of people were saying, “They’re letting us in!” I said to myself: “Hey, most of the police support Trump, and besides, this is the people’s house.” I understood that we had the right to enter as long as we didn’t break anything. I only stayed 33 minutes, I didn’t break anything and I left voluntarily, following the instructions of a police officer.

— You still entered through a broken window…

— Yes, but even at home, I can do that, if I have a feeling of ownership. »

The judge, unsurprisingly, did not hear it that way. The man was booked for disturbing the peace and unlawfully entering the Capitol.

He points to a prison window in front of us.

While we are talking, like every evening, after prayers, an inmate calls the group. We listen to it for five minutes through a loudspeaker. He talks about the first meal he will have after leaving prison thanks to the president…

Around 1,600 people have been charged in the January 6 affair. Some 1,000 of them were convicted or pleaded guilty. Officially, the FBI is still actively looking for individuals – including the person who planted homemade bombs in front of the Republican Party offices in Washington on January 5, 2021. On Friday, a new video was released by federal agents in an effort to find this person .

Meanwhile, several convicts banned from staying in Washington were invited by Republican elected officials to Donald Trump’s swearing-in on January 20. Judges refused the request of some of them, but others have had the ban lifted and will be present in the capital.

The legal rewriting of events will not stop at individual pardons. Everything is in place for investigations in the form of revenge against the elected officials, prosecutors and police officers involved in the various investigations.

Because at the start of the chain of events, there was Donald Trump’s slogan that day: march on the Capitol and prevent the certification of the vote.

The number 1 target of the new administration is obviously Liz Cheney, a former Republican who voted for Trump’s impeachment. She also made the great mistake of chairing the committee investigating the events, showing the involvement of Trump and his entourage in the attempt to reverse the electoral result. And the former president’s neglect of the violent rioters at the Capitol.

A House Republican committee released a report in December recommending an investigation into Cheney and other members of the committee. That’s good, the director appointed by Trump to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, has pleaded several times for retaliatory measures against the police officers and politicians involved in the “political” investigations against Trump.

We can consider that the term “insurgents” is an exaggeration to designate several of the “J6ers ”, as they call themselves. But they will hardly be considered as rioters, as the official story has watered down the events.

Trump describes them as patriots, “political prisoners”.

And in 15 days, after so many prayer vigils here in southeast Washington, the great forgiveness, the great forgetting and the great revenge will be underway…