The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell - Jan 6th Rioter Reveals What Really Happened At The Capital, Trump's Pardon, Soiling Pelosi's Carpet

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

What really went down on January 6th? In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Nathan DeGrave, one of the 1600+ individuals who participated in the Capitol protest and was later pardoned by Donald Trump. Nathan shares his firsthand experience, from marching to the Capitol after Trump’s speech to the moment things spiraled out of control. He reveals shocking details about how police responded, the role of outside agitators, and what happened inside the Senate chamber. He also discusses his arrest, the legal battle that followed, and what it was like serving time in prison for his involvement. Was he a patriot standing up for election integrity, or did he go too far? You decide. *This interview does not reflect the opinions of our show or channel* You Can Find Nate Here: IG: https://www.instagram.com/j6patriotnate/ & https://www.instagram.com/itsvegasnate X: https://x.com/j6patriotnate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We were watching Trump give his speech. And then he said, go to the Capitol. He wanted people to march to the Capitol. They did not prevent us from going inside. In fact, we even fist bumped and high-fied some of the cops that were standing in the Capitol. If you can while up the right person, then you can basically just start a chain reaction. We found our way to the Senate Chamber about 10 minutes later. That's when the situation totally changes.

We turn the radio on while we're in the car and they're saying, oh, there's an attack on democracy and attack on the Capitol. and we're just like, oh my God. I went in a fool in panic mode. They arrested me in my apartment. And you got raided? Yeah, basically. They said that we were some sort of terrorist cell. My lawyer called me and said,

you know, just want to let you know how you've been pardoned. So your case is over. This man is Nathan DeGray. Nate was part of the 1600 or so January 6 protesters who were recently pardoned by Donald Trump. January 6, 2021 is one of the most polarizing days

in American history. You probably feel one way or another about it depending on what side of the police. political spectrum you fall on. That's why I wanted to sit down with Nate to find out firsthand what really went on that day and then let you decide for yourself if he was a hero or a criminal. His views don't necessarily reflect mine, but I can tell you after spending time with him that he is not the man the mainstream media has made him out to be. I hope you enjoy this fascinating talk with Nathan DeGrave right here in The Connect with Johnny Mitchell. You know, you're a guy from

Philly, you're an entrepreneur, successful guy. You didn't need. to be protesting for Donald Trump on January 6th, right? No. You're not, you don't fit the stereotype. You don't have a Duck Dynasty beard. You don't look like a January 6th rioter. Which is more evidence to the fact that there's the media narrative and then there's the reality. Yeah.

And obviously they're not the same. So I don't know almost anything about January 6th. I know what one side says. Obviously, the official narrative is you guys were insurrectionists. You were called rioters. You were breaking in to the capital to try to, what, damage things. And I know there was some destruction involved and somebody took a shit, you know, in Nancy Pelosi's office. And then the other side.

My co-defendant. What's that? My co-defendant. Was that guy who took a dump? Yeah. Hilarious. Yeah. It's a very, it's almost like a frat move, you know.

They're symbolic. Yeah, uh-huh. Sure, sure. There was poetry in that. Yeah. It's wild that you could have that kind of flow in such a tense moment. You could be that relaxed to have a bowel move. Right. That's what's really impressive. A lot of talk about. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Or maybe a lot of like flaxseed.

Yeah. Right. Right. Now the other side, you know, I guess the right or the internet is behind you guys completely. you know, you guys were unfairly, unjustly, prosecuted, persecuted. You were there to peacefully protest. That's why I had you on because I don't know. And I just want to hear your account of what happened that day. Yeah, sure. You want me to start at the very beginning? Yeah, please.

So as you pointed out, I have business and I work very long hours. So this came around the time where I was putting in real long hours, 12 hours a day. And the valley came up in D.C. So I just thought, okay, this is an opportunity to just step away for work for a few days, take a break, go out, support the president, let my voice be heard because there were concerns about the elections like a lot of people had concerns. Yeah, what were those concerns specifically? There were just a lot of questions regarding the legitimacy of the results. There were just there were ballots that were found to just be questionable. there were so many issues that their entire documentaries created around this issue.

And the court simply just, they didn't say that it was wrong. They just refused to even hear the evidence. And so the people were really, the American people were really upset because at the very least, we deserve to be given an opportunity to be shown that what happened was legitimate and fair. So this was just, it was, it was a long time coming. And this was something like a pot that finally boiled over where people were just so tired of being told to shut up and believe the results. And people just, they had enough. And finally they took action.

I think some of us did. Yeah. Yeah. And it was unusual to say the least that millions more ballots had been submitted in this particular election, millions more total, not just for one candidate, than the last, you know, eight elections. right it's it was it was an aberration it was it certainly was odd like if you were looking at it from a scientific perspective right it's like every election gets about this many ballots on the chart and then whoa 2020 it's like the number of ballots is like way up here right was unusual and and and i don't know the exact number but i know that in the the 2020 election there were millions more

votes for joe biden that did not surface in this election So it's like, where do they go? Sure. Did they always go back to their graves, you know, where they came from? We don't really know. Right. So you go there. I guess you're just politically, this means something to you.

Absolutely. I love this country. I love the Constitution. I believe in democracy. And this was an attack on democracy as the media would like you to believe. It was in support of democracy because we weren't protesting the fact that our candidate didn't win, it was that we didn't believe the legitimacy of the election. And we're not alone.

I mean, it's looking like more and more the majority of the American population is beginning to question the legitimacy of our democracy, which to me is really scary. That's a scary thought. Did Donald Trump speech did he gave that day? And I think, I believe they took him out of context, as they did for his entire presidency. but did his words spur you guys, the protesters, the ralliers into more violent or aggressive action? Not at all. And he never even mentioned anything about violence. In fact, he said to march peacefully and patriotically for the Capitol.

But of course, you don't hear the media saying that. And they like, as you said, they like to cherry pick what they show and sort of the parts of the speech that they want to show to have. to help support whatever narrative they're trying to create. Do you remember what the parts of that speech was? He said, like, go show them or something. I mean, he did say to fight like hell, but obviously that could be taken in many different ways. Obviously, you can fight like hell in an office or even politically.

Right, right. Okay, so you get there. Did you have like a band of people or friends online or meet up groups or anything like that prior to going to D.C.? No, so it was just, it was my, my, My friend, Ronald Sandlin, and then also a friend of his that he brought Josiah Cole. Okay. And it was just the three of us, just three friends.

Ronald Sandlin was from Vegas like me. So we decided that not only would be able to take a break, but we could network and actually meet each other because we never met each other in person. Okay. So it was an opportunity for us to network, to meet each other, to get away from work for a few days. Yeah. And it was just me, him and Josiah Cole. Sure, sure.

Okay. So you get there. the morning of January 6th, walk us through how it led up to things starting to get weird. Yeah. So let me go back in my memory banks a little bit. It was very cold and there was a lot of people. So I remember at first trying to find a spot to park. Eventually, we actually parked at the Pentagon. They had a big parking lot where it was free to park. So we parked there and eventually we got an Uber to to DC. It got real cold.

So eventually we took a detour to TGI Fridays to get some food. And we got some beers. And we made a live stream, which we would eventually regret because we said a lot of things on there. It made its way to eventually the government. They got their hands on it.

But we were just being very rhetorical. You know, there's a lot of a lot of political speech. I guess you can say, Like, for example, when you say give me liberty, you give me death, you don't actually mean that you want someone to die. Obviously, it's it's hyperbolic language, right? It's expressive language.

You were talking shit. We said some things. You should talk. In other words, we said some things. The government did not like that. But we were there, TGI Fridays later to be known as the TGI Friday's video came very, very famous. It's hilarious. That's great branding for them.

That's great. Absolutely. Yeah. And then we were watching Trump give his speech. So at the time of his speech, we were actually eating. We were at TGI Fridays. And then he said, go to the Capitol. He wanted people to march to the Capitol.

So we had cameras and recording equipment and we wanted to actually record. So we thought it was a good opportunity for us to go there and capture some footage and see what's going on at the Capitol. So we thought, okay, let's wrap up our food and head towards the Capitol to see what kind of footage, what we can capture on film. yeah okay um all right so that was basically the purpose was just you guys were kind of making content we we're protesting and you know trying to get your subscribers up yeah correct we were live streaming the whole thing we had real expensive cameras we had go pros we have boom mics wow okay and we had give sing go where we were raising money prior to going where we would be able to market the documentary um have not editors go over and edit it and then the

the goal was eventually to sell it to TMZ for a couple hundred grand. That was like that was the initial goal. I mean, obviously we had our beliefs. But did you think, why did you think that you could sell a documentary about a peaceful rally on Washington for hundreds of thousands of dollars? Well, we had a feeling something was going to go down. We didn't know for sure, but obviously people were a little riled up. And on a historic day like January 6th, you just don't know.

And you don't necessarily think that something's going to happen, but you want to be recording just in case. So we just wanted to just get whatever we could. So if something did happen, it was on film and we wanted to have like the exclusive footage. Okay, interesting. So you thought that violence could happen? Absolutely. At any rally where there's political, um, political sentiment and people feeling strongly in a certain way, there's going to be a small, select group of people that get a little bit carried away. Right. Okay. I mean, that's just common sense. Yeah, sure, sure. I mean, generally it's the government.

If you look at the history of violent political rallies or congregations, 1968, the Democratic National Convention, that's in Chicago. That's when students were marching and the police basically sick them, right? And we're beating the shit out of people on camera. And yeah, no, there are flashpoints in history where this happens. you get there, describe what happens. How do you move your way up and ingratiate yourself with kind of these frontline guys that end up actually getting into the Capitol? Yeah, so a lot of people were just sort of standing around on the perimeter of the Capitol just in the general crowd.

And we really wanted to get up front. You know, we had our equipment and we wanted to capture whatever was going to happen. So we were determined to get to the very, very front, if not inside. because it's just to me it seems like common sense tells you that the deeper you go or the more involved in a situation the more intense the footage or the the moment could be so we thought if anything was going to happen it was going to be inside inside the capital inside the capital why did you think that was appropriate or possible well it was appropriate because it stole the election yeah but so we at that point there were no rules Oh, see, that's interesting. I think that's where you lose people. Why do you think there's no rules when all the courts and everybody came back as, well, this wasn't a stolen election? Obviously, you don't want to hurt people.

So, I mean, there's rules within reason. I'm not sure about that. Look, there's rules and then there's unjust rules. Right. But rules are the rules. So the way I look at it, you could say that, but then you could also apply things like the Boston Tea Party and you can say that that was an attack. So it all comes down to how you see things in your perspective. Sometimes, and this is always just a matter of personal opinion, the means will justify the ends.

That's what the end justifies the means. Yeah, that's what Lenin and Stalin said. Right. How do you think that worked out? I don't know. I mean, that's a different situation and they had their own game plan and their own agenda. So I just think they could say the same thing, but the context is totally different. right so so breaking the law in this case in your guys's mind you can't speak for everybody that was there

but you thought well yeah if we break the rules we break the law if it happens it happens well first of all you don't think you're breaking the law when you're in that situation because the doors were open number one they did not prevent us from going inside and number two there were cops standing around and watching us walk past them in fact we even fit fist bumped and high-fi some of the cops that were standing in the Capitol. So when you put yourself in that situation, right, imagine walking past a bunch of cops, cops and giving them a fist bump. Do you think that a normal person in their mind is going to think I might be doing something wrong?

The cops fist bump you and let you walk up the stairs? Correct. Through the doors of the Capitol. Correct. Wow. Is somebody going to think, you know, maybe I shouldn't be in here. Did you get this on footage? Did you get that?

I believe we have some of this own footage. But it's just context because it's like if the cops were saying, you guys can't be here, you need to leave. They're pepper spraying us, whatever they might be doing. It's like, okay, you can, that you might be able to say, well, maybe you shouldn't be there. But when the cops are standing there and inviting you and literally waving you inside, that's when the situation totally changes. Can I ask you something? There must have been security footage of this, no? Yeah, well, a lot of the footage has been deleted or not release of the public.

And that's why there's been such an outcry for further to be transparency and for them to release the footage that people want to see. Except unfortunately, the January 6th committee deleted a lot of their communication. They deleted a lot of the footage. So it makes you wonder, what are they covering up? After your arrest and arraignment and you're going through the process, did your lawyers, certainly they demanded to see that security footage, right? Yeah, of course, I mean, it were pleased from every attorney. And because it took months and months and months to get the footage and to get the, it's called discovery, obviously in the legal process. And it took, I think it was almost a year later when we finally got access to the footage that we needed to fight our case.

So just think about being in jail for a whole 12 months and you do not even have access to the evidence that they supposedly have against you. It's common, actually. It's common and it's not. Especially if you know the system. Right, right. Cops and prosecutors, U.S. attorneys, they, you know, fabricate things.

They work in tandem to suppress evidence that could exonerate people. I mean, these are just facts. You know, you can go back in history and look at it, you know, overturned appeals. Right, right. And just ask any black guy, poor person, whatever, you know,

January 6th rallyer. So did they ever find that footage, though? Because I think that's crucial. If the cops are making room for you guys to walk into a capital with open doors, that doesn't seem like trespassing. I can understand. But did they ever find that footage, though? So there is footage that the government has access to, access to that we also have access to as well. In fact, there's actually never before seen footage that we have that nobody's ever seen.

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Drink responsibly must be 21. Why isn't that all over? Why haven't you sold that to Tucker Carlson? Why haven't you? The timing is everything. Now, I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but why were your lawyers able to use that footage to exonerate you or push or fight in your defense?

Like, when they finally got that, that security camera footage, what did your lawyers do with it? So here's the problem with that, because when we got the footage, it was about 36,000 hours of footage. Inside the building, outside the building, parking lots, just overall area. Massive. And so the government did not even bother to go through the footage, to tailor that footage for each one of us. They just dumped a whole bunch of files and said, here's everything, you know, go through it. And if you think about how much time, 36,000.

thousand hours is. Yeah. It's impossible to even go to. And how much lawyers, how much lawyers cost? 36,000 hours times $500 an hour. Yeah. Correct. Okay. So you decided to not even, I don't know, waste your time or bother with trying to find it.

I mean, we went through some of it. Yeah. And we found, we found most of what we needed. Okay. But at the end of the day, you know, my case is different from other cases. And there may have been people that that did need that footage that didn't get it. Right. until a year later and there were there were even people that were exonerated because of the footage that was seen

I see so you think you know an innocent person exonerated 12 months later after doing almost a year in jail yeah is is un-American and should never happen I agree I think the bail system is atrocious you're haven't been convicted of anything yet and yet you're sitting incarcerated right and they did not let me out you know fast forward just a little bit uh to the pretrial detention hearing when I tried to get out, they obviously denied me. They denied most people based on the fact that either we were a flight risk or we were a risk to society. But then you look at people like myself who don't even have a criminal record.

How can that be? How does that make any sense at all? Ted Bundy got bail. Wow. You know, and we don't. Yeah. Regular everyday Americans. Yeah.

Well, it's punitive. You're labeled terrorists. Right. You know, you got the kitchen. sink thrown at you. Yeah, of course. So, okay, you get there. First of all, how many people are at the rally, like in your estimation? Oh, there's got to be hundreds of thousands of people. Yeah. Huge. Yeah. Huge. Like one of the biggest of its kind. Yeah, I've seen the aerial photos and it's just massive. Yeah. Yeah. So you and your two buddies with your TGI Friday leftovers

and your camera equipment are able to worm your way through a couple hundred thousand people to the front? Yeah. You can only do that by being really assertive. Yeah, sure. aggressive. Okay. So we weren't, you know, we weren't just trying to find our way past people. We were almost pushing people out of our way to get up there. I had a mask on. I had body armor on and a mask. And I think people would just kind of look at me and just get out of my way. Okay. So did most people have body armor on and masks? There were a lot of people. And the reason for that was because we were just we just wanted to defend herself this had nothing to do with the government unfortunately the government tries to relate the two to say that we were there to fight the

government which you know you can't do that first of all most of us didn't even have guns so how can you fight the government without firearm but we were doing it because antifa and other counter protesters could show up this is washington dc we're a trump supporter in washington dc So you're wearing body armor because you expect that, you know, you could get fired on by Antifa, by the government. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was worried that maybe people would show up. They would just want to pick a fight.

They would try to start trouble. So I wasn't there to start trouble. But what I was wearing was more deterrent. Sure. To try to just, you know, maybe if someone did want to start an issue with somebody, they would see me and maybe pass me by. Does it make sense? No, it makes sense. optically, it didn't look great because, you know, you kind of, you understand this.

You're a successful entrepreneur. You're a sharp guy. You attract what you put out there. Right. So I think when you show up ready for battle instead of with flowers in your hair, even though I understand the anger completely. Yeah. Yeah. I think you kind of, I think the protesters perhaps brought a little bit.

of that bad PR, that bad optics on themselves. Of course. However, I understand. But it wasn't even then. It was really the police. I mean, the majority of the assaults that happened were in self-defense. Okay, so let's go into that. When did the first, you know, violence?

When did that start? When did you see a tear gas being thrown or a punch? back and forth in your memory. You know, so from my perspective, I didn't see a lot of that, actually. That took place in a different part of the capital towards the tunnel. Okay. But what I can tell you is that I've spoken to a lot of people that were there and present. You know, obviously, I know most of the January Sixers.

Yeah. And I've heard the stories and I've heard the personal accounts from them. And they've all told me the same thing, which was that the police were aggravating. The people that were really just standing there to protest. and you don't fire on people or try to cause injury to people that are just standing around and posing no threat at all. So the police know that when you take a group of people that are already upset and then you attack them or you try to create an issue, that of course people are going to return the same energy and they should. What kind of attacks did they describe?

Yeah, so just pepper spray. I mean, just beating on people. I mean, look at there's a woman named Roseanne Boylan that was stomped to death. by cops and she was unarmed and she was basically just standing around and she was killed in cold blood by cops for no reason at all now what is the difference between those cops who would stomp to death an innocent woman and the cops who fist bumped you guys and let you into the capital why the disconnect you know it's just there's always a bad apple i mean at the end of the day there were a lot of police there some were some were cool and then some were obviously you know

not on our side. So it could have been their political affiliations. I mean, you don't really know why one cop wants to attack and why one is cool. Right. Did they ever bring those cops up on charges? Did you ever question? Did your lawyers ever get a chance to question them? Like, what were consequences for that?

No, but I think that's probably coming. You know, now that the analysis is over, I think that there's going to be that the ties of change. I think the investigations are going to go to the other side now. Sure, sure. Because, you know, people talk about like an FBI presence. Yeah. Right. Yeah. In the crowd.

And a lot of, you know, legislators and, you know, people that are now in government, in Trump's government, are going to want to figure this out. So in your mind, what do you think the bad actors dressed as either protesters or cops? How do you think they initiated the situation? or how do you think that they actually caused more chaos on purpose, perhaps? Yeah, so it's just classic entrapment. You know, once you, if you can, if you can while up the right person, then you can basically just start a chain reaction. And I think the feds know that.

And I think that's why there's laws in place, like entrapment protection laws, to avoid people being unfairly prosecuted. Right. When they're, when they're, I guess, enticed to commit crimes. Yeah. If you want to call it a crime. You know, then you look at someone like Ray Epps, who was seen on camera and a lot of footage, encouraging people to go inside the Capitol and like pushing them and encouraging them to go inside. Who is Ray Epps?

So we don't know. But the majority of people think, and like myself, that he's probably a federal agent of some kind or some or working with the government. So I hope that just questions. Was he on the protesting side? Yeah, he was on the protesting side. He was on the FBI watch list for a couple weeks until he suddenly disappeared. And then eventually he was prosecuted in a closed court where he received no time and there were no press that were there inside the courtroom. Isn't that unusual?

Right. So I'm not saying he's a Fed, but obviously you can look at the situation. Sure, sure. Did you end up meeting him or have an interaction with him? I don't think anyone's ever met him. Okay. Did you, do you recall any protesters kind of mounting this rally to let's go on in kind of kind of thing? Or were you just simply let in by cops?

Yeah, I mean, we were let in. So the doers for us were wide open. I mean, not just partially, but just, you know, 180 degrees wide open. How long did it take you guys as you started barreling your way through the crowds? How long did it take you to get to the front? Not very long. I would say probably five to ten minutes. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

When you got to the front, these are what's known, I guess, as the January Sixers, right? Because I assume those were the people that ended up getting in, right? The most aggressive ones. Right. And there was what, like? And then, of course, there's people, I don't, I don't remember her name, but she's in her 70, in her 70s. She's a grandmother. She went in there to pray and left and was looking at several months in jail for it. Wow. And they arrested her? They arrested her. Wow. Yeah. So there's a couple thousand. How many people do you think were on the front?

Like the front or inside. What do you mean? On the front before you guys actually went inside. I would say a couple hundred people. Okay. Yeah. It could have been more. Okay.

So you get to the front. Didn't take you very long. Now had, by this time, is there fighting between the cops and the protesters? Or has that not jumped off yet? No. So up until that point, it's been pretty calm, at least from my perspective and from what I was able to see. There was a lot of people just cheering, taking videos, taking selfies, a lot of celebrations. But there wasn't really a vibe or an energy of anger, really that I detected.

Right. It wasn't until I got inside a day. I saw my first scuffle, which was really, you know, not much of a scuffle. Nobody got hurt, but it was over a doorway. You know, people trying to get inside. So were you led in immediately when you got to the front? Well, we were, yeah. I mean, we walked in and then eventually we just kind of walked our way.

We found our way to the Senate chamber about 10 minutes later. Were you thinking, oh my God, this is crazy? Yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome. I mean, it sounds awesome. Sounds fun. It's an incredible building. I went on a field trip back in the day with my eighth grade class, you know.

I mean, were you just like, this is. But did it strike you as like unusual that they wouldn't have like the doors locked and blocking people from coming in that are dressed like William Wallace? They did. They tried to close the doors. Okay. So but you had a far away inside. Okay. Okay.

So, but that contradicts what you told me about the cops, fist bumping you and letting you in. Yeah. So again, you know, mixed bag. You know, there's always going to be those good ones. And there were those good ones that ones that didn't bother us, it didn't tell us to leave. And there were a couple that the ones that the second floor in front of the Senate door, the ones that sort of had the issue. Or they just tried to close the door on us really and we just forced it back open. What was your goal?

What now that you're inside? Just the kid there really. I mean, the government will have you believe differently. But the truth is, you know, and I can be frank with you because my case is over. Yeah. I have no reason to lie. But at the end of the day, we just, it was sort of just a game of like capture the flag. And we got to the, we got to the Senate.

We took her video. We said we did it, guys. by co-defendant took a hit of a joint and we left. Right. And that was it. And we weren't going to go there and try to burn the place down.

To me, that doesn't sound like an insurrection. No, no, it sounds like what frat brothers would make their pledges do. Right. Right.

Correct. It was like a big frat party. Go take a dump on Nancy Pelosi's office floor. Right. And now you are a capa-capa delta. Right. Wow.

But I don't want to downplay the patriotism either. I mean, we did, we did feel that the election was stolen. We had a lot of, you know, beliefs about that. But obviously, we were just, we were a lot of us were just having a good time. How many people were in there when you first breached or went, got into the Capitol building? It must have been at least a couple hundred people.

Right. And what, what I see? I'm sure there was probably hundreds more to float in after I left. Uh-huh. And what are most of these people doing? Just walking around. Yeah. Carrying flags.

Right. Video is chanting, cheering. Were you trying to get, was anybody? actively trying to get into the chamber where the Congress people were? Not that I seen. Not that I seen. And I don't think that there were anyone that was actually going after Congress members. Did you have any, did you see any weapons?

I saw no weapons now. Hmm. Hmm. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, because you can understand, at least from their perspective, that this is dangerous. It's dangerous to have people. I mean, you're supposed to go through metal detectors.

Everybody gets, you know, going into the Senate is like going into Fort Knox. Even if you work there, you have to. Of course. So letting somebody in the side door, that's a real security risk. Right. Like Republicans that are against, that were, that thought the election was stolen or that were against Biden, they would have been scared. You know? I agree.

I agree. So the question then becomes, well, why were they so lenient? Why were the doors open and why were we never told to leave? if it's such a security risk unless there was some other ulterior motive going on. What do you think that was? I think it was a setup.

I think Nancy Pelosi was shown on record turning down National Guard. She wanted to open the door. She wanted to let a bunch of people in and unfortunately prosecute Trump supporters because if they can't get to Trump, then they're going to get his supporters. And what I really think is that

they were going to try to convict enough people that walked in on a bogus charge, we'll talk about 1512, which is obstruction of Congress. And then they would use all that legal history and precedent to then convict Trump. So we were target practice for Trump. I see. And then the inevitable happened. They eventually did go after Trump for that.

Right, right. But we were a mean to an end for Trump. Cannon fodder. Yep. Okay. So let's talk about that. You get in there. How long do you think you were in the building total?

Oh, maybe 10 minutes. Right. Not long at all. Okay. And then your buddy you were with took a dump? Yeah. My co-defendant, Ronne Slandlandland. And was he with you at TGA Fridays?

Yeah. Wow. And so you might have seen the other video, the other picture of a guy hanging by one arm. Yes. On the balcony. That was the other guy. I feel like I'm. I was in the bleaches, the railing above him recording him.

Wow. This is, I feel like this is a piece of American history that's going to be captured in time. you were your buddy took a TGI Friday dump on Nancy Pelosi's desk. Folks, you, that hasn't been said on any other podcasts. Just make note of that. Let's just say we won't confirm or deny that. Okay. But he's, we'll just say that.

But is he exonerated or is he still in trouble? Yeah, he's exonerated. Okay. Yeah. We'll just, we'll say we've confirmed or deny that. Okay. All right. That's wild.

Did you know what was Nancy Pelosi, the police office? You know, I can't speak for him. You know, that's the question you had out. Yeah, he should be the one on the show right now. This guy, this is a celebrity. Right, he is. Okay. So you're in there for about 10 minutes.

He takes a shit. You take a selfie. You said you tried to force your way in somewhere into a room. It was just a doorway and that was what led to the Senate Chamber. Yeah, that's an issue. That's an issue, right? Do you regret maybe doing that? Yeah, I mean, I think we might have pushed it a little bit.

I don't think that the the charges and what we faced match exactly what happened. Fair. But I don't think that it was necessarily appropriate. Good. Again, again, but then again, you know, when you believe that the election was rigged and I still think it is and the evidence shows that, then obviously, you know, you're going to do what it takes to try to fix that. Well, three guys busting into the Senate chamber is not going to fix that. Sure.

Maybe somebody else will. I mean, I wasn't planning to, certainly. But, you know, obviously the goal was to try to find evidence. And that was my goal. And so they actually have me on camera saying, take laptops, take paperwork, take everything. Who said that? I said that on camera. And they have be courted in court and all that, of course.

Well, that's, we wanted to steal that. We wanted evidence, yeah. Okay. They wanted evidence of the stolen election. okay we went to find it right I don't I don't want a free computer I don't care about the laptop you know I want what's on it yeah

so you thought you were going to be the one to find all these drawn me but maybe somebody would find it or find a device we could finally prove the illegitimacy of the election so it sounds like there was just this drunken mob spirit that was going on right like you know if you ever been to like you're a football game

like your favorite sports team, right? Like when I used to go to my college football games, everybody is drunk, but also like when the team's winning, there's this spirit of this kind of collective, I'll call it like psychosis that's just driven by adrenaline. And that's kind of what this situation sounds like, right? Of course.

Yeah. Because you think they're going to be, you think the stolen election evidence is going to be hanging around on Nancy Pelosi's MacBook air? Well, probably not. We would hope so, but probably not. Yeah. Because yeah, you're right.

This does to me sound like a setup. So you don't want to give them any reason. It's just like when a cop pulls you over. You don't give them. You know they're going to lie. Right. You know they're going to try to do anything to try to get a conviction on you or search your car or find any reason to fuck with you. So you give them none.

Right. So I just think, well, I, do think you guys were unfairly charged. I think you, you maybe got carried away is kind of what I'm, I'm not here to lecture you. I'm just, this is my perspective.

Yeah, here's how I see it. If you, if you are walking down the sidewalk and you see somebody in a mask, in a ski mask, leaving a jewelry store with a whole bunch of jewelry, do you have the right to stop them? you do not know.

So that's just a moral issue. The police do. The police do. Okay, sure. So we can agree to disagree on that. Obviously, I would say yes, which I'm sure is what you are.

What in our country or like? Yeah, I mean, just in general. I mean, obviously citizens arrest and, you know, and I think being a good citizen.

So that's just the difference of perspective. I feel differently. I think that you should stop them. If you see somebody doing something wrong, they should be stopped. Yeah. It's, you know,

in a place like Haiti, where there's no law and order and cops can't be trusted, you know, that's where vigilanteism and all that, you know, what we've evolved from since, you know, the caves and the pre-democracy and pre-law and order, we evolved into this system where the government has the monopoly on violence. And if you see something, that's why you call the government. It's why you pay taxes. You have these people that are supposed to be. And of course, this is just the theory, right? So we're not going to talk about political theory. I just, I want as many people to be on your side as possible.

Of course. And the way that you're going to get them on your side is by showing some contriteness for your part in it, right? So you tried to force your way into the chambers. That is wild. Yeah. Did you see it? Well, we didn't try. We succeeded.

Wow. Yeah, we were one of the first people inside. So you're on the chamber floor where they make laws. Yeah, yeah. Did that feel surreal? It did. It felt like I was in a dream. But at the same time, we believe that it was the, it's the people's house.

And we believe that we had a right to be in there. And also people have, it's not the first time it's happened. There have been, there have been protests at the Capitol building many times. Like Justice Kavanaugh, for example. and people stormed the capital building then, but they weren't hit with the same charges that we were. Did they get into the building? Yeah, they got into the building.

And so this is where we start to lose a lot of people who support the other side, because it's like if you want to criticize those who storm the capital, then you need to be consistent in your application of the law. And you can't say, well, these people deserve it because this is what they did. But then on the other hand, these people get a slap on the wrist.

Sure. What happened to those people? I don't think anything at all. Really? Yeah. That is strange. Yeah. It's strange. I think it's selective prosecution. And so that's why we're, and a lot of us are saying that, you know, even if we have done things we shouldn't have done, that because it was selective prosecution and because we were treated so unfairly that that pardon really is the only appropriate response. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I think what we've learned is we, you've got to protest outside.

Right. I'm sorry if it's cold, but you can't come in. Doors were locking the top lock. Everybody needs to be heard and seen and felt, you know, outside. Right. Or how about not steal an election? Sure. We can go for that one too.

I mean, look, it's, and now again, I got to say for YouTube, this is just his opinion. There is no evidence the election was stolen. I mean, there's evidence. There's evidence that implicates tampering, but it was appealed. through the legal process and it went through you know different courts and it was found to not be stolen

which which cases specifically I mean we don't have our computer because there are a lot of cases for example where the courts would shut it down or they were shut down a case or an evidentiary hearing because they missed a deadline or that too many days

that's passed and you can't just you can't just disqualify a case because of some sort of some sort of legal rule when you're talking about the legitimacy of an election? I actually don't know enough to speak on it. So people can go, I know that Trump sued to get a recount. A recount was given. Beyond that, it looks really sketchy.

I just have to see that because we're trying to get this episode monetized. Right. So, and that is a fact. Now, the fact is there was a recount. You know, I don't know. and I think there's not enough hard evidence to show where all of these extra millions of ballots are going. That's all I will say. Right, right.

There's a lot of things we don't agree with. So the point is how we protest them in the U.S. is supposed to be different than other countries, other banana republics. But I totally agree with you. I totally agree that it's selective prosecution. I agree that there's bias. It doesn't take a real brilliant person to see that there's – bias and political persecution by the Justice Department.

Yeah. Wow. You were the first one in the chamber, you and your buddies? We were one of the first. Yeah, probably the first couple dozen people. And then what happened after you got in? Not much. I mean, I took a couple extra videos and I left.

I can't believe you just nobody grabbed you. Nobody tackled you? No, no. I should have gone there. No, of course not. Well, this is amazing. I would have gone into a five-minute stand-up stand-up set. There were no cops to be to be seen.

Nobody was being told to leave. And again, and no one had guns. I mean, like, that alone, that should be the defining focus. Because how can there be an insurrection without guns? No offense. How can you do it? If I had a gun and I was guarding the, the, the, the, I was guarding the capital. I would have shot a motherfucker.

Right. Right. I mean, and cops like, cops have immunity to shoot people, basically. So the fact that there was nobody there with guns. really should raise eyebrows. Well, we have to be careful with that because somebody was shot. And her name was Ashley Babett. And she was shot by a cop as she was climbing through a window and she was killed.

And she was a veteran who served this country. So do you know, and we remember seeing, you know, from the mainstream footage, we remember seeing these kind of harrowing images of people, January 6ers, trying to get in, breaking windows trying to push their way in um what did you see any of that did you witness any of that at the time not not personally okay okay did that happen after i don't know if it happened after but it was a different part of the capital altogether so it sounds like you guys after you you took selfies you just kind of walked out of the capital yeah like there's something else to do right Right. We saw everything. We couldn't find any, you know, we couldn't find any election scrolls that said the election was stolen. We didn't find what we came for, but we made our presence known.

We made a statement. Yeah. I mean, and that's really what it came down to him. We were there to make a statement, not take over the government. I mean, that's really as simple as that. Okay. We did. We did exactly that. Yeah. So you left. You walk out of there. Did anybody try to stop you leaving? No, no, no one stopped us from coming in, no one stopped us from leaving. It sounds like there wasn't a lot of, a lot of, there was nobody home, it sounds like. Right, correct. Right. Right. I mean, we could have done just irreversible damage inside the Capitol if we wanted to, but we didn't.

Yeah. And that, that right there shows that we weren't there to destroy anything. We didn't want to, you know, take over the government, nothing like that. So after you left, did you stick around? I immediately flew back to Vegas. Okay. I was supposed to be there for another day. And I'm like, I need to go home.

I need to get out of here now. Sure. Sure. I went in the panic mode. Uh-huh. I went in full on panic mode. Why? Just because I realized I just probably went too far in the Capitol.

I probably was going to get in some trouble. Yeah. I didn't think it was going to be nearly the amount of trouble I got in. Yeah. Maybe trespassing or 30 days in jail. Yeah. Must it hit you like, wow, we did look too good. Right.

Right. Correct. Yeah. Wow. So you immediately, so did you leave, did you stick around to protest a little more outside or did you just bull? We got the fuck out of there. We just got out of there. Yeah. Like, holy shit. Right. And then we, we turn the radio on while we're in the car and they're saying, oh, and there's an attack on democracy and attack on the Capitol. And we're just like, oh, my God. Did that strike you? Like, did the, because you must not have known it was going to be as monumental, as important as it became. No, not at all. We didn't think it was going to be. nearly blown up to the proportion that it did. I don't think anybody could have really seen that coming. No.

So you fly back to Vegas and what happens next? Yeah, I just really, I just get back to my normal life. Yeah. I kind of just shove it under the rug and get back to my business. And do you have all the footage? Who kept the footage? Yeah, so that was all on the devices were salons cameras and equipment. So he had all that.

And did you plan on releasing it? we wanted to sell it to TMZ. Right, right. Yeah. Because what we had was way more intense than we anticipated. Sure. For sure. And we were like, this footage is historic.

Yeah. We could get six figures. Right. If we kept it. Sure. Sure. Yeah, you're not going to monetize that on YouTube. So you might as well sell it to the networks.

Right, right. But it sounds like you didn't get a chance to. No, we didn't. Okay. So when, when did you get arrested? How well after? Yeah, so this was probably about 10 days later. It was right around January 15th, 20th, you know, I could be a couple days off, but it was about a week.

And I honestly thought that we were good. Yeah. I wasn't wary. I wasn't looking over my shoulder. I just got back to work. I thought, you know, maybe, maybe they, you know, I would get a little bit of time, maybe a fine. But I never thought that I was going to be serving years of my life. in prison for that.

Wow. What were you facing? What were you looking at? Well, initially, it started off at 50-some months. It was the very first plea deal. It was a 15-12 charge with a whole bunch of, a whole bunch of enhancements, which really made no sense at all. And it took it from like 18 to 24 months.

And then with all the enhancements, it was like four or five years. What were your charges? Total. Like, what were the totality of them? Can you rattle them off? Yeah. So from what I remember, it was obstruction of Congress. Well, actually, it's 1512C, which is obstruction of an official proceeding.

And later we would find out that the, that charge was shut down by the Supreme Court for being inapplicable. It didn't apply to what we did that day. Unfortunately, I pled to it and served many years of my life for it. Well, okay. So hold on. Let's let's talk about how you get there because, you know, they really, you know, there was real a cry for blood. from the Congress people, right, from the Senate and from the DOJ. You get arrested.

Where do they arrest you? They arrested me in my apartment. Like, and you got raided? Yeah, basically. Well, my roommate let them in. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, they were going to get in.

Yeah, they were going to get in. Right. Right. So my roommate let the door off the hinges. Yeah. I guess they banged on the door, let them in. I was sleeping. Wow.

So I woke up to seeing them there. Wow. Yeah. Did your roommate, as you were getting hauled out, say, Don't forget about rent, man. No, he was an Airbnb guest. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah.

What happens in Vegas, dude? Anything can happen. Yeah, exactly. Wow. Okay, so you get hauled out of there. And are you shipped back to Washington? Eventually. Okay.

Eventually, we start in the local jail, the local Las Vegas jail. We spent the night there, which was terrible. That was probably the worst of all three years was the very first night. Always is. It always is so bad. The longest day of your life, when you get arrested and you've never been in the system before, the one, the 24 hours, the first 24 hours feels like years. Yeah, it was hellish. Yeah.

I mean, we were in a cold cell. We had no bed. You know, I slept. I used a roll of toilet paper for a pillow. Yep. And slept that night. Been there, buddy. Yeah, terrible.

And then eventually we were taken the next morning to Perump, Nevada, which is the only federal facility. in Nevada. And then a whole bunch of stops after that until eventually we made our way to D.C. Yeah. Yeah. They call that the con air. Yeah, the con air. Yeah.

And that's part of that's intentional. That's trying to break your spirit. Is it? Yeah. Really? Yeah. I've talked to a lot of, you know, because I was in the system for crimes, you know, for drug trafficking.

This is way back in the day. But you would see people getting off the bus from the feds and they were like, yeah, I was on a chain for like two weeks like bouncing from like they had to go pick people up in Oklahoma then they went up to Pennsylvania and then they went back that's right then to Pennsylvania yeah and then to DC yeah wow so you're you get to DC you're emaciated you're exhausted you're frightened probably yeah I mean just no idea what's going to happen no clue what are they telling you what is your paperwork say so it was it was only a couple of days after I went to D.C. where I was then finally given my first plea deal. And it was for,

it was for somewhere between 40 and 50 months. And my attorney at the time, she just couldn't believe it. She was in total shock. Right. So you're being threatened with about four to five years. Are you labeled domestic terrorists? Not that I, not that I, not that I heard directly from the government or the prosecution. Did anybody you know of the January Sixers? Were any of them hit with those charges? Yeah, we were all hit with almost the same charges. Okay, which was all of us.

Which were? Obstruction of Congress. And then a lot of us got assault charges. Parading and picketing and entering a restricted area. Those are the smaller misdemeanors that some people got hit with too. Okay. I see. I see.

Were you, did you have some of the most serious charges to your knowledge? Or was anybody looking at like, I know they gave a guy like 14 years? Yeah. That was probably Enrique, Terry. or it could have been Jacob Lang, I think, that was facing that much time. Okay. Who just got out too. God bless.

God bless him. Now, why was, why did he get so much time? I don't know. I mean, I don't know too much about his case. Okay. It's just probably just the charges that were held against him. Wow. So you were, so now you're in the D.C.

Federal holding facility. Did you have a bail opportunity? No. Federal, there's no cash bill. Wow. It's either you're released or you're detained. Hmm. And we were considered, I was eventually considered a flight risk.

Wow. Why? I don't know. Was it any phone calls, any letters home? It could be my financial situation. I was doing quite well at the time, traveling a lot. So maybe they just assumed I was going to run. Right.

Did you offer them your passport or anything like that? That's usually like what lawyers do to say, I'll forfeit is, forfeit my passport. Just let him get out while he fights his case. Yeah. We attempted every possible solution, even, you know, an ankle monitor. Yeah. Putting me on house arrest. It's still no bail.

And still no bail. To me, it doesn't make, this seems like a perfect solution to that issue. Right. Right. It's punitive. Right. It's punitive. You know exactly where I'm at.

I mean, at that point, how am I any longer a flight risk? Right. Yeah. They're trying to break you, man. Right. Of course. Yeah. They wanted you.

Like, people don't understand. The system is run by individual. jewels who have egos who are petty just like everybody else and they look at you guys like oh these motherfuckers want to come in our shit yeah watch yeah watch how we bend you over right how about you just sit there using that toilet paper for a pillow for three years man so you were in and they were scared of us i think the government was really scared of me and my co-defendant well look you I mean, you go audiences.

We were very influential. We had money. We're well spoken. And the government was afraid of us. Well, I think what you guys did was pretty balzy. Of course,

yeah. You know. But they had a narrative they wanted to tell. Which was? That it was an insurrection, that it was some kind of terrorist attack. Yeah.

Yeah. That seems pretty insane. Yeah, of course. That's as insane as you saying, grab the computers. Right. We're going to find the Evidence. Right. Exactly. I mean, it's just bravado, but you know, they actually mean it. Whereas I was secretly hoping no one was going to actually do it. They mean what they say and they actually believe what they say. Do you think they believe what they say? I think. I don't know. It could all just be them playing their game as a prosecutor to try to peem me out to be the biggest monster as possible. I mean, that's what they do, right? So yeah, it's possible. Okay. So what were some of the U.S. attorneys, the assistant U.S. attorneys were prosecuting the case? Yeah. What were they saying?

about you guys. Yeah, so they called us terrorists, obviously. They said that we were some sort of terrorist cell that was going there, that we had extensive planning and preparation, which made us especially dangerous when I took a flight to the wrong city. And it was like two days before I left. So, I mean, is that really extensive or is that last minute? Right. Did you present that to them? I didn't do any much speaking. You know, I did get left that to my attorneys. But they looked at the fact that I brought equipment and booked the flight as that somehow being extensive planning and preparation. Right.

Right. And you couldn't even figure out how to get to D.C. Right. Right. Yeah. It's so bizarre. It's such a circus.

Right. They said it had body armor on, which I want to correct. It was a motorcycle jacket. Oh, so it wasn't even like Kevlar? I call it body armor because it's tongue and cheek. You know,

they said for so long that I was wearing body armor, but it wasn't it wasn't the Kevlar vest. Those things are thousands of dollars. Right. This is a motorcycle jacket. So a bullet would have gone through it? Yeah, of course. Yeah.

But it looks cool. And to the government, it looks sinister. Right. You know, that's how they see it. Yeah. But really, it's a bunch of bravado. I mean, you know, we're obviously, like I said, it was a deterrent. And we were making a movie.

So we were dressing up. We were getting attention. Yeah. We were marketing. Sure. That's marketing. Everything's marketing. Yeah. Everything's marketing.

Until it becomes a crime. Right. But that's their marketing. That's the way the prosecutors marketed to the judge and to the grand jury. Wow. I actually am shocked that you weren't facing war time, to be honest with you. Yeah. Like, I actually didn't know it was only 40 or 50 months.

I thought you were looking at life numbers because of the domestic terrorist charges. Right, right. Which would have been insane. I mean, even four or five years really is insane. Yeah. I mean, look, they do more insane things. There's people sitting in federal prison. right now doing basically life for meth amounts that you could just stick in your pocket right there.

I met a lot of them. Horrible. I met a lot of them. It's horrible. And good people that just made a mistake. Made a mistake. Right. Right.

Just like you guys went to protest totally within your rights. And you even admit that maybe you went a little too far. Right. Do you think if you could have just like spoken with them and said, look, my bad about that? You can't reason with them with the people on the left. You can't. It's all the people on the left or is it, is it the government? Well, it was the people in the left because they were the government at the time.

Did you tell us about your plea agreement? They wanted to give you, what was, they wanted to give you 50 months and what did you come back and offer them? Yeah, so it ended up being, they wanted me to take the 1512 charge with all the enhancements. and then that would bring me somewhere around like three to five years, give or take. Right. And what did your attorneys push for as like a counter? Yeah. I mean, we pushed for the 1512 without the enhancements, which would have taken me to time served.

Right. And they said, no, then we're going to do that. Wow. And you'd already been in there how long? A year and a half. Yeah. Yeah. Even though a year and a half later, they said that the Supreme Court said it wasn't even a valid charge.

They wouldn't even give me the charge without the enhancements. and not just one enhancement every single enhancement on the 1512 they added all of them how many were there how many like four or five wow so that's what are those

oh man it just and just totally ridiculous one is like one is like threatening with violence against a witness or something like that which I still don't know who the witness is and did they even tell you no they didn't tell me

it's insane Yeah. Costing the government's a certain amount of money, he was like another one. Just is crazy. They can't print more of it, right? Right, right, right. Yeah. Wow. And you had no criminal record either.

No, no criminal record. Man, had a successful business. Yeah. You know, so how much of a threat do I really pose? Yeah, I think you guys deserved a little spanking, perhaps, but certainly not five years. Right. That's what a lot of people say. And I think when Trump looks at, you know, clearly pardoning you guys, part of it is political.

It always is, right? Thanking your followers by your supporters by, you know, showing them an act of good faith, like pardoning. But I also think like when you guys get pardons, when people get pardons, presidents look at, okay, they've done time. Right. It's like Ross Oldbrick, just got part. Yeah, he did 11 and a half years. Right, right. You know, he did his time.

Exactly. So you guys were punished. Right. It's just, like we skated away, Scott Fried. Right. Right. Okay. So you're in there and like, do you start to develop like a routine while you're in jail?

Like, yeah, a lot of reading. Yeah. A lot of working out and a lot of chess. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. Right. Do you remember any characters in there? Like, do you remember other people, uh, Not necessarily January 6 people, but like, do you remember, do these people stick out to you? I met a lot of interesting people in the prison. Yeah.

Some that were very famous. I don't know if you know who Big Meach is. Yeah. So he was in there. You met Big Meach? He was in there and he had his posty with him all the time. Yeah, you can't. He's like a celebrity in there.

Yeah. It's hard to get to him. Right. Did you meet him? I worked out with him. Yeah. No shit. He was jacked by.

the end. Yeah, he was big. What was he doing in there? Because he'd already been in there, yeah. No, he got out. Big Meach got out last year. Positive. Yeah, he's home. What was he doing in there at the time? He must have been like going back to court or something. I don't know. Wow. I didn't ask him too much.

That's funny. I know the Big Meach story well. Okay. So you were on, did you, did you, were you spotting him on the bench press? Like, what were you doing with Big Meach? It was it was a bench press machine and we would take turns. we get a lot of hood people and black people that fuck with big meech they're going to watch that and say nah he ain't do all that hey he's a cool guy he's a nice guy probably he seems like a cool guy

anybody else anybody are there famous people that stick out to you i don't know about famous but definitely people that have made a lot of money i mean i know someone that made like almost a hundred million dollars in the refinery business and then eventually got caught up for some kind I don't know if it was tax fraud or some sort of crime. I don't want to misspeak and say the wrong things. But he was doing really well. And there were people in there that were making a lot of money and doing really well. You meet some really interesting people in the feds.

I met a billionaire. Right. An actual billionaire. Wow. Yeah. What was he in there for? I'm facing. I don't remember why he was in there.

But he was worth like four or five billion dollars. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The feds you meet absolutely the craziest, you know, top level criminals or you know i don't like to call them all criminals like a lot of them just did make mistakes yeah you know yeah and um what do that what do that tell you like being in

there being in the system being in the belly of the beast for that long fighting your case did did you develop kind of a sense of empathy for for these people for people in the system What did it make you think about the American justice system in general? It's so corrupt. And there's so much room for improvement. And yeah, my heart goes out to a lot of the people that are still in there, people that I met that I know for sure are good people

that are doing 10, 15, 20 years of their life. And judges are so quick to hand these sentences out, not knowing what they're really doing to people. Yeah. I mean, these are good people and people just make mistakes. And they get in desperate situations and do things like sell drugs to feed their family. and then you've got to spend the rest of the life in prison.

And it's not fair. And so compassion is a really important thing. And it helped me get through prison. Because compassion is an easy way to take to focus off of you. And when you focus on you and what you're going through, it's so easy to suffer and to be depressed. But if you can put your attention on others, especially people that are doing way more time and have way worse situations,

you feel better. And it's an easier way to feel happiness and to cope with your environment. Wow. That's so well said. Yeah. That's so well said. And does it's so funny like that your attitude, you don't sound like some nutty right wing Republican. No, I'm not. And most of us aren't. Yeah. We're normal guys. We're normal men and women. Yeah. That just love this country. And you have some nuance and you have empathy. Yeah. Oh, wow. Fascinating. So you were in there going back, going back and forth to court for how long you said? So it was a year and a half before I finally received my plea deal.

Okay. So you, and you were going to get the enhancements. It sounds like there was no wiggling out. There was no way getting out of it. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So you were in there for a year and a half, you signed for, what was your final sentence?

How many months? It was 37 months total. 37 months plus your time service. So now you got what about another year to do? Yeah. Okay. I did. Okay.

So then you went, where did they ship you to? Where did you do your time? Well, I did my time in Longport, California. Oh, you were in Long Park? Yeah. The minimum, though, right? Yeah, the minimum. Well, it's a medium, but it's considered a low to medium.

Okay. Yeah. Wow. There was still metal detectors. Yeah. I mean, so right there, that's not a low anymore. Yeah. So it was run like a medium still.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Wow. And what did you think? What did you think? Did you do your time wisely? Yeah, I did a lot of reading.

I told myself Python. And I read books on Python. programming languages. I learned Spanish and I spent a lot of my time talking to the Pisces. Yeah, I bet. A lot of time. All day long, I would just practice my Spanish and talk to them in Spanish. Yeah. A lot of cocaine. Yeah. A lot of them are there for the methamphetamina. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But that's, yeah, there's some of the most fun guys to be around. Yeah. And it was a easy, it was a great opportunity to speak Spanish all day and just get really good at it. Really? Yeah. Speaking Spanish is so fun. Yeah. I read El Codigo da Vinci.

Wow. Yeah. The whole novel in Spanish. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Fascinating. And what were your plans when you got out? Just go right back to my business.

Just start, you know, where I left off and try to rebuild. So you got out what year? I got out. That was December of 2023. Okay. I did a total of nine months and a half a house. Okay. So I was out September of last year.

Wow. Wow. Did you expect a pardon to happen? Yeah, I mean, if Trump was elected, I was waiting for that day. Because he, I think, I believe he was promising that as he was campaigning, right? And one thing about Trump is that he always fulfills his promises. Hmm. I mean, we can always disagree, you know, but that's my opinion.

And I believe them and he and. I mean, look, when it came to pardons, I think he's done just that so far. He's only been in office as of this recording, like, what, five days or six days or something. So, yeah, he sure has pardoned everybody he promised. And he's done everything he said he was going to do so far. He's very transactional. Yeah. He's very, and that's his business background, which I think a president, like, should be like that.

Right. A country is a company. Yes. I agree. Yeah. You know what it's not run like, though, right now? A company. Right.

Because they, we spend more than we bring in. Right. What kind of company can sustain that? Right. So we got to get Elon to turn that around real quick. Yeah, he's just got to stop Hiling Hitler. Elon. He's going to the moon.

Elon, I got a lot of Tesla stock, buddy. I know you're just being a troll. Please stop hiling Hitler. It's just, that's the media. He's not. But he Musk is not a stupid enough man to give a Hitler salute on stage in front of the world. I understand that. But I do think it's kind of when we're talking about optics, right?

Like perception matters. so it does it was sort of context he says my heart goes out to you you know so if he hadn't said that then you know maybe there would be an argument are we talking about the hiler yeah when when he when he made the gesture he said my heart goes out to you and he made that gesture that's what you're referring to right right yeah oh interesting so that was that's why he went that's why he went maybe that's why he went that's why he went yeah he's he's out to you guys you know he's he's left up on he's left on stage i I agree. He's done a lot of things with his body while he's on stage.

He's quirky and that's his personality. And the guy wasn't hailing Hitler. Sure, sure. No, the Jews didn't get mad about that. They got mad about what was going to happen to their Tesla stock. That was the first thing that he did. You know, my Jewish friends were like, yeah, what's this going to do to my money? Right.

So, wow. The same old playbook. Yeah. And we live in the time of where almost anything can be taken out of context. Yeah. And that's why I brought you on because I really, I just wanted to hear somebody's story from from the heart. Like you, there was no, we didn't rehearse this beforehand. I pressed you on some things because that's just what I do.

I think that's like good journalism. Like there's questions that we have and maybe there's things that we disagreed with that maybe the methods could have been perhaps a little more thought out. But it sounds like you guys didn't really have any time to think through. Like nobody was thinking. everybody this was a a wild moment in American history and if what you're saying is true they let you in the doors

like right you know I mean you get a lot of followers that way yeah yeah and I don't regret anything that I did and it's the first time I can really say that because if I had said that two three weeks ago I'd be back in prison for saying that exact word really so what were

some of the conditions of your parole I mean it was just obviously you know no no drugs and then of course just reporting once or twice a month. My probation officer was really cool, actually. But why? Why? It didn't bother me too much.

Was there, but did you have like a gag order against speaking about this? Well, no, but we were, we were crucified in court because of the, the beliefs and the thoughts that we had. So really this is, we're talking to First Amendment violations, but the judge would determine our level of dangerousness based on, based on what we were saying and what we believed. And the judge would say things like, you know, Mr. DeGrave has very dangerous rhetoric and is believing the lies perpetuated by Trump and therefore he's a danger to society. So they correlated our beliefs about the election to being a dangerous person. Right.

And then they would essentially just get us in more trouble, probably put us back in prison if we were to say those things. Now I can finally tell you that I don't have a single answer regret. Wow. Wow. One, because the election was stolen. And two, because in this election, it was much more fair. And I think that if January 6th, and I really believe that if January 6th never happened, that Trump would not be president today. Because there was so much, there was so much scrutiny and so many eyes on this one because of what happened.

Yeah. That the election turned out to be fair and legitimate. So for that reason alone, January 6th was worth it. Yeah. That's pretty awesome, man. Yeah. And, you know, the government is scared. They should be scared of the population.

Yeah. They should serve us. There should be fully, they should be fully scrutinized. There should be no privacy. Right. And the citizens should have all the privacy. Yeah. It's completely reversed, though.

But I do think that going out and making your voice heard and in those numbers, I absolutely agree. I think that they knew that that couldn't, there could be no fuckery this time around. Correct. Exactly right. They'd have to find another way to pull the fuckery. But that's what Thomas Jefferson says, I think. The cost of liberty is eternal vigilance.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. As long as there's a government with human beings, there's going to be corruption, right? Yeah, exactly. So you always have to be scrutinizing and making your voice heard when it goes too far. Yeah, exactly. So. And then there's another expression that says, evil can only persist when good men do nothing or something along those lines.

Yeah. And so I believe that January 6th was a perfect example of that. Wow. So, you know, opinions can vary in terms of, you know, were we in the right? Were we not in the right? At the end of the day, I think that the election was stolen. A lot of people do. And for that reason alone, I think that we were in the right.

When, where were you when you found out the pardon was coming down? I was at home. You're at home? I was at home. I was at home. and I got a text and I, well, actually my lawyer called me and said, you know, just want to let you know that you've been pardoned. So your case is over. How does that work?

That's so cool. You have a presidential pardon. Do they email you? Not yet. I think I'm going to get something official, but I haven't gotten anything yet. Yeah. Hopefully it's a PDF and you can print it and put it up on your wall or something. Exactly.

Exactly. How many people can say to have presidential pardons? Not very many. And then yesterday, my, my probation officer called me. Wow. And said, hey, I don't, you know, I've never had to make a call like this before, but you're over. Your case is done. So your whole record is expunged.

Yeah, no more felony. I could go on and get a firearm. Let's go get one, man. Yeah, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

After everybody got pardoned, they did let everybody out. I believe as of yesterday. Okay. They finally let the remaining people out. There might still be a couple more people in there. And I, so, because I don't want to leave anyone out. If there is right now, people still in there. I don't want to misspeak.

As far as I know, everybody's out. Okay. But I think there might be a few people that are in there. And I think one of them, I think he's name, I think his name is Jeremy Brown. So I want people to look into that if he's, if he's still in there. Okay. And he somehow ended up getting a. trouble for some other charge that was related to January 6th, but not exact.

And therefore, the pardon didn't apply to him. They didn't let him out. I see. Oh, I don't know if that's exactly. I know it's something like that. You know, I want to clarify that it could, that I may not be 100% accurate, but I do know that it's a different charge. And he's a Jan Sixer.

Yeah. But he's still in jail because it's like a different charge. Right. Well. So we got to get him out if he's still in there. Yeah. or, you know, try not to, you know, trying to commit any felonies. That's the other thing, right?

These guys, you're free, but you have a hard on. They know who you are now. Yes. You're in the system. Right. Once you go in the system, you're in there. Yeah. So you try not to do anything that's going to give them a reason.

Yeah, be on your best behavior. Exactly. Yeah. So one of the great things about this country is that is the rule. It's a law-based country still. So I'm glad they're out, though, because I remember. when we spoke the other day on the phone, you said there's people who are pardoned that are still sitting in jail. That's where the rule of law breaks down. So I'm glad most of them are out.

Right. And I'm glad that everything's working out for you. Yes. Thank you. And I really, really appreciate you coming down here. This, I of course. You know, it's kind of mind-blowing. And it is a piece of American history. Yes, absolutely. Do you think the country's, you know, in general, I know you're happy Trump's, you know, in office again, but long term, you know, you've got an AI company now. So you're a real long-term thinker, you're a sharp guy. Do you think the country's headed in the right direction? It is now. Now that we're under real leadership.

Can it sustain? Because he's only going to be around for four more years. Can it, you know, do you think overall the country is going to sustain and the empire will be intact 20 years? Well, we've got four years to try. to create a foundation in which we can create more sustainability. There you go. Killer. All right.

Nate, I really appreciate you coming down here, man. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, pleasure is mine. Yeah. Do you have anything you want to plug?

Do you have? Yeah, so I'm J6 Patriot, Nate on Instagram and on X. Okay. And it's Vegas Nate on Instagram as well. Awesome. Awesome.

Yeah. We'll put everything in the description. And yeah, dude, thank you so much for coming down here. Thanks for your Patreon. Yeah, no, I really appreciate it. I love it. And you got killer things ahead of you. Yes, I think so. All right, you guys, take care.