Ohio Jan. 6 defendant says actions that day were ‘an honor,’ claims vindication after Trump pardons

President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at the Capital One Arena on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump offered a reprieve to more than 70 Ohioans convicted or charged with crimes in connection with the U.S. Capitol siege, with one of the defendants saying it was an honor to stand up with other patriots that day, to be prosecuted for it, and to be vindicated by Trump now.

In an Oval Office signing ceremony for his executive order pardoning roughly 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, Trump explained, “I will say this, they’ve been in jail for a long time already.”

“I see murderers in this country get two years, one year, and maybe no time,” Trump claimed wildly without evidence. “So they’ve already been in jail for a long time. These people have been destroyed. What they’ve done to these people is outrageous.”

Trump further attempted to justify his actions by suggesting — also without evidence and despite prosecutions featuring extensive photography and video evidence of the defendants undertaking their actions — that the violence on Jan. 6 came from “outside agitators,” and that “obviously the FBI was involved,” a conflation of confidential sources present at the riot with the conspiracy theory that undercover FBI agents instigated violence.

An Office of the Inspector General report published last month found 26 confidential human sources were present for the events of Jan. 6, 2021; the same report found the FBI had no undercover agents present at the riot.

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Trump’s actions were met with praise from those receiving pardons. Alex Sheppard of Powell, Ohio was sentenced to 19 months in prison for his participation in the riot, but got an early release after the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case challenging the Department of Justice’s use of obstruction charges.

In a lengthy post on social media, he thanked Trump and cataloged the restrictions he’ll no longer face adding, “FREEDOM, AT LAST!”

“I woke up this morning with a new lease on life, and so did every other J6er,” Sheppard wrote. “Looking back, it was truly an honor to stand up for Electron Integrity with so many other amazing Patriots, to be persecuted for it, only to eventually (and finally!) be vindicated.”

Jessica Watkins, a member of the Oath Keepers from Champaign County, received one of the longest sentences among the Ohioans. In 2023, she and handful of other Oath Keepers were convicted of conspiracy, obstruction and civil disorder charges. Watkins was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, but Trump’s commutation reduced her sentence to time served as of Jan. 20, 2025.

Tuesday morning, she posted a photo on social media with the message “I’m freeeeeeee!!!!!”

Court appointed public defender Heather Shaner represented 44 of the Jan. 6 defendants.

“I think it’s like Holocaust denial,” she said. “Jan. 6 was horrible. It was a crime against our democracy and these blanket pardons are just all part of this scheme to make it a walk in the park — this was fun, it was a day of love. It wasn’t a day of love.”

Shaner said she worries the pardons might mean some of them lose access to mental health services they received through the corrections and probation system.

“A lot of the people involved in Jan. 6 came to the Capitol with mental health conditions,” Shaner described. “PTSD, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, drug addiction, and they had been flailing around in their home communities for years without ever receiving mental health or medical services.”

Shaner doesn’t actually oppose the idea of some defendants getting pardons — she noted she’s happy for those of her clients who will feel better with a clean record and don’t need ongoing services.

But she added, “The majority of my clients did not ask me to seek pardons, and knew they were guilty of what they had done and expressed a lot of remorse about what they had done.”

“I know a lot of the cops who were injured,” Shaner said. “You can’t deny that that happened.”

Officials from Ohio largely decline to weigh in

Ohio Capital Journal reached out to several statewide officeholders as well as Ohio’s U.S. Senators and likely Republican candidates in the mix for 2026 gubernatorial race.

Attorney General Dave Yost, Treasurer Robert Sprague and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy — all of whom have been telegraphed plans for a 2026 run for governor — didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted didn’t respond either. Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno didn’t reply to the Ohio Capital Journal, but HuffPost quoted him defending Trump’s pardons. Echoing Trump, Moreno argued that defendants have been behind bars long enough and he claimed that they were denied due process, though he did not elaborate or provide evidence or any legal argument for that extraordinary claim.

Only about a week ahead of the inauguration, Vice President J.D. Vance stated “obviously” those who committed violence shouldn’t get pardons. In a statement Tuesday, Vance’s press secretary Taylor Van Kirk defended Trump’s blanket approach.

“Due to the corrupt process of these prosecutions,” she said, “President Trump rightly decided to grant a broad pardon to all wrongfully convicted January 6 protestors.”

In a parting shot to the outgoing Biden administration, Van Kirk added his “application of presidential pardons for members of the Biden family are far more deserving of additional media scrutiny.”

Gov. Mike DeWine took a hands-off approach, with a spokesperson simply noting the governor has “not issued any comments on that issue.”

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