January 6th Protester Describes What’s Happening to Him
CLAY: We got a caller who says he was in the Capitol on January 6th, and we’re talking about the difference between the 18-year-old inside of a school in Texas who shot four different people allegedly and is out on a $75,000 bond and how did that compare to what happened to you, our caller from California?
CALLER: Well, let me tell you. This is really wild. First off, they raided my house. There were 30 cops that raided my house. They arrested me. Me and my son had just got done playing golf. I was arrested at gunpoint. We both had laser dots all over us. I got thrown in jail for nine days. I thought they were gonna extradite me back to Washington, D.C. None of my charges are violent charges at all. They’re all picketing or attempting to remain in a building, which, I was in the building for under three minutes, to be honest with you.
CLAY: Sir, sorry — I want to cut you off. So you were there on January 6th. You’re saying you walked in, you just kind of followed the mass of people into the United States Capitol for three minutes. How did they track you down?
CALLER: Well, I’m a six-foot four, 200-some-odd man with a huge beard on my face and it was pretty easy to identify me. But I was actually forced in, and it was a stampede of people that ran in, and the very first thing I did I went to an officer and I said, “Hey, I’m not part of this. What do I need to do?” I was told to go stand against the wall with my hands up and they would help get outside, which they did, and it took about 3-1/2 minutes.
And once I was outside, four of the officers, one got thrown on the ground by his own fellow officers because the force of the push and three of them retreated behind a door. They asked me to help them get back inside so I held the door open to help them to protect them from the people behind me ’cause it was kind of wild on the side that I was on.
And I helped the officers get back inside. So I got a charge that was impeding an officer during an investigation, going inside of a Capitol Building or restricted area. I got a charge of disrupting a political — a thing where the vice president was. I got all… I got six charges, very common charges that many other people got.
And they almost didn’t let me out of jail. When they found out I had a property with a ton of equity in it, I was able to put my house up. I have a $200,000 property bond on my home, and that was the only way that I was able to get out. And none of my charges are violent. They even know I didn’t do anything violent, and I just still can’t believe that the FBI raided my home. And the search warrant, they were coming for… They came for a Trump hat a T-shirt and a jacket.
BUCK: Wait, John. It’s Buck. It was actually the FBI that came busting into your home over this?
CALLER: Yes. The FBI came busting into my home.
BUCK: They might have thought that you were at a parent-teacher meeting and said something mean to teachers, by the way, because we know the DOJ these days is very interested in that. But, John, where are you now in the adjudication process? Are you still facing the charges? Do you know where this is going?
CALLER: Oh, I’m still facing the charges. As a matter of fact, I was recently — and I don’t want to give too much information, ’cause I don’t want the FBI to identify who I am, obviously. My name is John Doe. But mine is more recent. I was at the later end of the people arrested.
BUCK: What are you facing? How much time could you get?
CALLER: Well, the longest charge carries 20 years.
BUCK: Wow.
CLAY: You were in the Capitol for three minutes, the FBI raided your home, you had to post a $200,000 bond to get out of jail after spending, you said, nine days in jail?
CALLER: That’s correct.
CLAY: And you did —
CALLER: And a lot of this — and I’m lucky, ’cause how many guys are still in?
CLAY: ‘Cause they don’t have the assets to be able to post the bail and get out.
BUCK: They’re being held in solitary. Clay and I were talking during the break, there are still nonviolent participants in January 6th who are being held in solitary, have been held for many months. John, obviously we know it’s not your name…
CLAY: Do you have a good lawyer, John?
CALLER: Man, I have one of the best around. I really love the man to pieces he tells me over and over again, he says, “John, don’t worry at all.” He said, “We’re gonna beats this,” and I believe we are. The sad thing about it is it’s already cost me $40,000 in attorney fees.
BUCK: Yeah, and lawyers are very, very expensive. Look, John, we appreciate you calling in and giving us a view into what it’s really like, what the criminal justice system’s like. God bless and stay safe. Thank you for being here on the show. Clay, you said it right before. You got people… You’re part of a group that breaks into a building.
There are hundreds of people. It’s a big protest. People’s blood is kind of running hot at the time. There’s a lot of stuff going on. You step aside; you say, according to what he said… We can only take him at his word. We don’t know, but he speaks to law enforcement. He says, “I don’t want to be a part of this stuff,” and you face… Does anyone think that the guy…? How long is this individual who just shot four people in jail? How long was he held? Twenty-four hours before they let him go on bail. Interesting, isn’t it?
CLAY: I’m so fired up about this. This is me as a lawyer speaking, Buck, because everyone has to have faith in our justice system in order for the justice system to work. Really. That is the essence — and I’m not saying we get everything perfect because we don’t. No system created by man is going to be perfect.
But the idea that we could have all of these people facing the charges that they are for nonviolent (for the most part) breaking and entering, trespassing, whatever you want to say of the United States Capitol, and simultaneously we can have a violent school shooter? Compare the difference between the treatment of those two; it’s all politics.
BUCK: This is the result of a continuous, coordinated narrative from the Democrat apparatus of the white supremacist threat to America, the insurrectionist threat, the Russia collusion threat. These incredibly either exaggerated or fabricated narratives of terror that they use, then create a perception among people that they can’t treat their fellow Americans fairly because “our democracy is at risk.” How many times do you hear them say “the threat to our democracy” when there was there protesting on January 6, whatever it may be?