Proud Boys and placards: A morning outside the jail where J6 prisoners will walk free - by Emily Maitlis

Read time: 6 minutes

The D.C jail - or to give it its full title - the Department of Corrections Central Detention Facility is a mere 15 minute cab ride from the Rotunda Capitol Building - the setting yesterday for Donald Trump’s second inauguration. But also the scene four years ago of carnage and vandalism when an angry mob descended on it to try and intimidate legislators into overturning the will of the American voters.

Some rioters threatened to kill the then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi - some called for the hanging of the Vice President Mike Pence - one of the few leaders around Trump brave enough to tell him to his face he had lost. Five later died as a result of the events of that day. And it was here - behind the barbed wire fences and the rusty orange brick walls that many of those convicted of assault and seditious conspiracy - actions that left 140 people injured - were sent to serve out sentences Donald Trump told them they didn't deserve.

Today, when we arrive at the jail shortly after 9am it has an air of expectation. The building - looking more like a hospital than a prison from some angles - has lines of yellow tape outside the entrance. The high-vis security guards flanking it are balaclaved - to ward off minus 10 degrees wind chill. And on a tatty patch of grass opposite we see the protestors who have come to make this spot their soap box if not their home. Some hold Stars and Stripes symbols, others placards that read ‘NO MAN LEFT BEHIND’ in red on one side and PARDON ALL J6 HOSTAGES ON DAY ONE’ in blue on the other.

It is here, in this makeshift camp, that we will talk to Summer, to John, to Mary and Peter who will all tell us versions of the same story. That they are marking a vigil for those convicted of crimes "they did not commit. Political prisoners of the Biden regime". They are waiting to see them released from prison, there to offer freed convicts a lift home or their "first cold beer".

Because last night, in one of his opening acts as President, Donald Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon to 1250 or so rioters that had stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Around 500 of whom were convicted of felonies. Not only did he wipe their slate clean, he forbade the future prosecution of anyone else whose case was still making its way through the courts. When I ask those gathered what this means to them they call Trump ‘a man of his word’. Certainly, on the campaign trail Trump signalled this would be his priority as president.

The first woman we speak to - Summer - tells us she’s proud of those inside. She’s come just to show her support to "The American patriots" and would have wanted to be part of the insurrection herself. Like John Balayzik who - but for a last minute invitation - says he was intending to join friends who are now stuck ‘inside’. Friends he was drinking with just moments before the trouble broke out. John is a large man, dressed in a khaki biker suit. His sew on badges declare Bikers for Trump but also War on Breast Cancer.

He’s part of the nationalist militia, the Proud Boys. In fact, he jokes, he represents the ‘Maryland Chapter of the Proud Boys’. In other words, he’s the only one there is. I have never spoken to a Proud Boy before. not knowingly at least. And for a moment it throws me. But John is pretty explicit, telling me they "drive around looking for trouble," "throwing any Antifa (anti facist) protestor they can find around".

He describes a stunt they pulled on Maxine Waters - a black female 86-year-old democrat, staking out her house and surrounding it, banging saucepans outside her door. "Generally making trouble". I ask him what he thinks happened that day in the Capitol building, when America’s democracy started to look as if it might succumb to mob rule. John tells me I have it wrong. That crimes were committed that day. But they were committed by the FBI. By government federal agencies. The riots, he believes, were staged. The wrong people blamed.

Mary and her husband Kevin, middle aged and mild mannered are listening nearby. They share that narrative. They are convinced, still, that the ‘irregularities’ of the 2020 election were hushed up. Buried. When I point out that 63 different appeals were brought in court cases, all dismissed without merit, they tell me the cases were thrown out for nefarious reasons - being too late or getting the paperwork wrong. They believe those rioting on January 6th were there to seize back democracy stolen by Biden. They see their own role as one of supporting those fighting the good fight behind bars.

I ask them about the violence that we all saw - on our screens - that day. Unforgettable scenes seared onto the brains of those cowering in fear inside the building and those watching around the world slack jawed. How flag poles, chair legs, fire extinguishers and broom handles were being used as weapons against those going about their jobs that day - the certification of a president who’d won an election. They, like John, are convinced the violence was the work of outsiders. Antifa perhaps, ‘bad actors’. They simply, whole heartedly cannot believe that the people convicted and jailed after months and months of investigation by federal prosecutors have done anything wrong.

As we are packing up to leave, Uber called, we head back towards the correctional facility to get our last shots through the yellow tape. Suddenly, we see the doors open and a man carrying a black bin bag emerges. He’s clearly taking away the belongings of someone inside. I ask him who he’s waiting for and he tells me its his ‘Proud Boy brother - Tommy Vournas’. Vournas pleaded guilty to felony charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury last September.

I follow his friend - brother - as he heads away from the jail, complaining that the paperwork is being delayed; "They're just stalling because they are pigs’.

"What’s he inside for," I ask. "Nothing’" says the Proud Boy. "He’s inside jail because he’s an American patriot". He’s due out tonight, and when he heard the news of the pardons says he had "tears running down my eyes" He thinks Donald Trump gets it because, like the Proud Boy, he’s been through the federal prison system. He is, they think, one of them. "It’s the first time ive seen justice in this country for a long time."

I ask him about prison conditions.

"He’s been in a goddamn DC gulag," he tells me, "a communist prison. We’ve been under communist occupation for four years after a stolen election".

And I no longer know whether the guy I’ve been chasing up the road is saying this for effect - or truly believes it. He tells me January the 6th was the product of federal informers who interceded to stage a coup to cover up a stolen election.

Trump knows what happened on January 6th. Immediately after the riot he tried to distance himself from this mob, calling them intruders "defiling the seat of American democracy" and referring to it as "a heinous attack".

But these are his people now. His convicts. His Proud Boys. His voters. They need to believe their actions - inspired by his own words - were saving America.

And many of them truly do.

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