Pardoned Insurrectionists Brought to D.C. Jail Demanded Others’ Immediate Release
When Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) returned to office on January 20, 2025, he pardoned some 1,500 prisoners convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol to keep him in office in January 2021, after his loss to former Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Two days later, about 20 of them remained in the Washington, D.C. jail, awaiting release—and the delay didn’t sit well with the rest of them.
“Let our people go!” chanted a small group of supporters gathered outside the jail.
The group included some who were pardoned and freshly released from a Philadelphia lockup. They were brought straight to D.C. by a group of unnamed supporters, whose members also greeted those pardoned and released from about 80 lockups around the country. One of the released individuals, William P. Sarsfield III, was a Texan who had been awaiting sentencing after a November 2024 conviction for felony obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder (plus related misdemeanors).
“We still have prisoners who are still locked up and it’s not fair,” Sarsfield declared.
U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) surveillance video showed Sarsfield entered a tunnel leading inside the Capitol from the stage set up on its West Portico for Biden’s inauguration—three times. Each time, Sarsfield threw himself into the crowd’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to push back police officers, several of whom were injured. After retreating from the tunnel, Sarsfield told FBI investigators, he aided two wounded USCP officers. But he was convicted by a federal jury and held to await sentencing for about 10 weeks before Trump pardoned him. See: United States v. Cook, USDC (D.D.C.), Case No. 1:23-cr-00138.
At least two prisoners rejected their pardons. One, U.S. Navy veteran Jason Riddle, 36, said that Trump “was trying to say [the insurrection] didn’t happen. And it happened. I did those things, and they weren’t pardonable.” Fellow convicted Capitol rioter Pamela Hemphill, 71, also refused to endorse “propaganda that [the attack] was a peaceful protest.”
Additional sources: Dallas Express, The Guardian, WRC
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