Jan. 6 Prisoners Slowly Being Released After Trump’s Pardons

Some prisoners charged with crimes related to the protests of Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol have had a slow release from jails and prisons despite President Donald Trump’s unconditional pardons and commutations. 

Last week, The Heritage Foundation’s Christian Lasval visited the D.C. Central Detention Facility as some of the Jan. 6 prisoners were being let out after Trump pardoned them. Lasval reported from the center about 24 hours after Trump issued the pardon, and there were still several prisoners who had not been released. 

“The D.C. government is stonewalling President Trump’s pardon,” Lasval reported. 

“A lot of families have lost everything. Their husbands, their fathers, their breadwinners have been taken from them and put in prison unlawfully for many years for the simplest of infractions,” said Ned Lang, the father of a Jan. 6 prisoner.

Lang described how his son was moved around to several different prisons, making it difficult for his family and attorneys to contact him. Lang also claimed that the notes his son had taken when meeting with his attorneys were confiscated when he was forced to change prisons.

“It’s like playing cards with your opponent looking over your back and looking at your hand. It’s impossible to win,” the elder Lang said. 

Lang also alleged that the prison guards had hit his son the day Trump issued the pardon, and that the mayor of Washington, D.C., was the official holding up the paperwork to release the prisoners. The District of Columbia government runs the D.C. Central Detention Facility. 

“What this is, is nothing more than this nasty, rotten mayor of this city that controls these facilities,” he said.

Other Jan. 6 prisoners have also detailed facing the full force of the government. The Daily Signal spoke with one former Jan. 6 prisoner who outlined his plea deal situation.

“They gave me a plea deal, which was awful. It was basically just the felonies. They took away the misdemeanors, and they were, like, ‘You can take the felonies.’ That’s not a deal. ‘What are you doing?’ So, yeah, I never even considered their plea,” Mike Picciuto told The Daily Signal.

Before Trump’s pardon, Picciuto said, he was looking at serving a maximum of 47 years in prison. He also insisted that he had not committed any violence.

“They were just overcharging me. My attorney and I have watched all the bodycam footage and everything. My attorney is, like, ‘There is no way in hell. You didn’t assault anybody.’ So, he was hopeful. However, the prosecutor literally said, ‘My boss will not let me drop [the case], because she said you have to take the assault,’ essentially is what she said. She said, ‘I can’t drop that.’”

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