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PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 31: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives on New Year's Eve at his Mar-A-Lago Club on December 31, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump continues to fill posts in his upcoming administration ahead of his January 20 inauguration.
Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images

‘I will refuse a pardon from felon Trump!’: Convicted Jan. 6 rioter from Idaho says she won’t be ‘bullied by MAGA anymore’

Trump has said he'll pardon Jan. 6 rioters on "day one."

Not every convicted or accused Jan. 6 rioter looks forward to a potential pardon from President-elect Donald Trump.

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On Jan. 12, Pam Hemphill, who pleaded guilty to trespassing-related misdemeanors on Jan. 6 and served two months in prison, wrote in part on X, “I’m not going to be bullied by MAGA anymore … I will refuse a pardon from felon Trump!”

In her post, Hemphill, from Boise, ID, said “MAGA” called her probation officer, hoping to get her in trouble, but it backfired, “thinking I would stop speaking out,” but instead, it” just give me more confidence to continue!”

“I was a participant who broke the law,” Hemphill has said

via Pam Hemphill/X

As well as her prison sentence, Hemphill paid a $500 fine and served probation, ending in September 2024. The retired substance-abused counselor pushed past barricades several times on Jan. 6 and cheered on other rioters. Seven people died, and more than 100 were injured, including law enforcement officials, on Jan. 6.

But since the insurrection, Hemphill, a Barack Obama voter turned Trump supporter and former far-right activist, has renounced the MAGA movement. In 2024, she voted for Kamala Harris.

After Jan. 6, Hemphill wrote in an open letter to Congress, “I am not a victim of the government, the Justice Department was not weaponized against me, I was a participant who broke the law.”

In 2023, she added on X, “Please @realDonaldTrump don’t be using me for anything, I’m not a victim of Jan6, I pleaded guilty because I was guilty!”

“I was lied to by Trump”

via Pam Hemphill/X

Hemphill, now in her 70s, said Trump’s aggressive border rhetoric and China criticisms appealed to her in 2016 and again, in 2020, but as she told NPR, “I want the world to know that I followed a cult leader, and I’m really sorry that I did because I’m really ashamed of it. But it’s something I got to forgive myself [for]. But I can’t blame me 100% because I was lied to by Trump.”

According to Hemphill, Trump should face the same consequences for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection as the rioters. “Nobody wants to see a president go to prison. However, it’s time that we recognize that law and order is for everyone,” she said. Hemphill has called the insurrection, “the worst day in our history.”

Hemphill’s post about a potential Trump pardon refusal and accusations of MAGA bullying drew positive comments, including “Thank you Pam for waking up. You are what scares them the most.”

But proving her point, there was also MAGA trolling. “Who cares? Speak out if you like…thanks to Trump (and Elon) you CAN! If you don’t want a pardon, don’t accept it. I don’t get what your problem is,” one comment said. “What a 🤡,” another added.

About 1,300 people have been charged in connection to Jan. 6. Most charges involved violence or destruction of property. Trump has said he’ll consider Jan. 6 pardons “on day one” but clarified he may sort out “radical” and “crazy” Jan. 6 defendants from those who “had no choice.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, recently said on Fox News Sunday that violent Jan. 6 offenders should not be pardoned. After Hemphill said she’d refuse a Trump pardon on X, she later added in another post, “I’m hoping more J6 defendants will come to their senses and realize Trump is a dangerous cult leader!”


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