A man who reported his father to the FBI over his involvement in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot said Monday that he was “terrified” about President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon hundreds of convicted Capitol rioters.
“I’m honestly flabbergasted that we’ve gotten to this point,” Jackson Reffitt, who reported his father, Guy, to the FBI, said on CNN. “I’m terrified. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Why It Matters
Guy Reffitt was one of the Capitol riot defendants who prosecutors said “lit the match” for the riot and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
Trump on Monday fulfilled a campaign pledge to pardon people he described as January 6 “hostages”—those who were convicted over their involvement in a deadly riot in an effort to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 U.S. election.
Among Trump’s first actions as president was to pardon more than 1,500 people, including Reffitt, who were convicted in connection to the Capitol riot. He also commuted the sentences of 14 Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were charged with seditious conspiracy.
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What To Know
Jackson Reffitt was a key witness in the government’s case against his father and first reported Guy Reffitt’s far-right political views to the FBI in December 2020, just days before the riot.
He later forwarded text messages from his father to the FBI after Guy Reffitt attended Trump’s “Save America” rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, shortly before a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Prosecutors read some of those text messages and played audio of family conversations in court as part of their case against Guy Reffitt.
“You carried a weapon onto federal grounds,” Jackson Reffitt said to his father.
“OK. … Which part of that is breaking the law?” Guy Reffitt responded. “We made a point. … You know your father was there when an epic historical thing happened in this country.”
Reffitt, a member of the antigovernment group The Three Percenters, was the first rioter to be convicted in March 2022. He was found guilty of two counts of civil disorder, one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, one count of entering and remaining on restricted ground with a firearm and one count of obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said at his trial that although Reffitt never entered the Capitol building, he galvanized the crowd “into an unstoppable force” against law enforcement officers who were guarding the Senate doors.
“Reffitt sought not just to stop Congress, but also to physically attack, remove, and replace the legislators who were serving in Congress,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memo. “This is a quintessential example of an intent to both influence and retaliate against government conduct through intimidation or coercion.”
Jackson Reffitt told CNN on Monday that he has “taken as many precautions” as he could in recent days.
“I’ve picked up a gun. I’ve moved and I’ve gotten myself away from what I thought would be a dangerous situation and staying where I thought my dad could find me, or other people,” he said. “People that are going to feel so validated by these actions, by this pardon.
“I’m just so filled with paranoia about what could happen. I’ve been waiting all day for a call from the DOJ to just figure it out and know what to do next because right now I don’t, other than just sit around and, you know, talk about it.”
What People Are Saying
The Lincoln Project, a Republican-led anti-Trump group, said on X: “No number of pardons or lies will change what happened on January 6. Donald Trump can’t change history. It was domestic terrorism, it was treason, plain and simple.”
Democratic Representative Jason Crow said on X: “President Trump’s pardon of Jan 6 insurrectionists disrespects the police who fought & died to protect the Capitol. The rioters brutally beat police officers, threatened the lives of our nation’s leaders, & attempted to overturn an election. They deserve prison, not a pardon.”
What Happens Next
Trump signed a flurry of other executive orders and actions shortly after taking office on Monday, including rescinding nearly 80 Biden-era orders; withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization; seeking to end birthright citizenship; declaring a national emergency at the southern border; announcing steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico; instituting a federal hiring freeze; and seeking to end what he described as “censorship” by the federal government.
While some actions are effective immediately, others will take effect in the coming days. The 25 percent tariffs Trump announced will take effect on February 1, and the president also signed an order giving TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, an additional 90 days to sell the popular social media app to another buyer to avoid being banned in the U.S.