Pam Hemphill, who was charged for her involvement within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, is pushing again towards the notion that the Division of Justice (DOJ) was weaponized towards the rioters.
“I’m not a victim of January 6th, and the DOJ was not weaponized against me,” Hemphill stated Thursday throughout an look on CNN’s “News Night.”
“I used to be a volunteer,” she continued. “I broke the regulation. It’s that simple.”
Hemphill, together with the vast majority of Jan. 6 defendants, was pardoned by President Trump final month, throughout one in every of his first official acts as president. She advocated towards his clemency efforts regardless of being sentenced to 60 days in jail and 36 months of probation along with a $500 restitution charge.
“I’m upset that Trump lied that the election was stolen. That’s why I was there,” she defined to CNN host Abby Phillip.
Trump’s sweeping pardon of greater than 1,500 individuals — together with violent people who assaulted law enforcement officials — shocked even Republican lawmakers, who witnessed the riot firsthand. He later defended his actions in an interview on Fox Information, outlining a “number of reasons” together with allegations that the rioters had been handled “so badly” and that they need to “be allowed to protest.”
A majority of People have additionally stated they’re displeased with the pardons, in accordance with latest polling.
Hemphill has additionally condemned former Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio in latest months for introducing rhetoric that incited rioters, and he or she has continued to take problem along with his claims of DOJ weaponization below Democrats publicly.
“What’s taking place is I’m destroying their narrative, they usually don’t prefer it,” she added. “Too dangerous.”
“I’m going to proceed to destroy your narrative since you’ve been mendacity about the whole lot that occurred on January the sixth,” Hemphill added, pointing her criticism to far-right leaders equivalent to Tarrio.