Why Everyone Should Oppose How The Jan. 6 Protesters Were Treated

Today I'm joined by John Strand, a man who participated in the January 6 protests on Capitol Hill. John committed no violence nor was he ever *charged* with any violence. Prosecutors don't dispute that he simply walked in and out of the building that day. For that offense he was facing almost a quarter century in prison. Is that justice?

I hope everyone, especially those who are on the political left or otherwise not Trump supporters, will consider this question with an open mind.

There was indisputable violence on January 6 and most people can agree those who physically attack another human being should face legal consequences. 

But for the millions of Americans who have been conditioned to despise January 6 protesters as domestic terrorists or insurrectionists, there is little attention paid to what happened to the hundreds of non-violent protesters that went in and out of the Capitol that day. Many of those protesters were not only charged with misdemeanor offenses, like unlawful entry, but also found themselves facing felony charges that were pulled from 2002 financial accounting law in order to give the Department of Justice the ability to seek up punishment of up to 20 years in prison.

No matter what you think of the protesters themselves or what they were protesting, it is important to ask oneself this:  For those who were non-violent, should they face 20 years in prison? And would then fairly apply this principle to *any* other protester?

After listening to the show you can learn more about John's story:

Website: https://www.johnstrand.com/
Twitter: @JohnStrandUSA
Book: @PatriotPlea

00:00
Understanding January 6th: Myths and Realities

01:54
The Role of the Justice System

04:10
Personal Background and Political Awakening

06:54
The Freedom Rally and Activism

09:30
January 6th: The Day of the Capitol Incident

12:18
The Narrative of the Rally and March

14:40
Government Response and Security Failures

17:29
Reflections on Accountability and Future Implications

21:39
The Super Bowl Analogy: Crowd Dynamics and Expectations

23:09
Chaos at the Capitol: The Columbus Doors

25:19
Inside the Capitol: A Bystander's Perspective

27:47
The Aftermath: Realization of Legal Consequences

30:07
FBI's Most Wanted: The Unexpected Turn

31:41
The SWAT Team Assault: A Terrifying Experience

34:38
Four Days of Silence: Detention Without Charges

36:26
Common Treatment: The Reality for January 6 Protesters

38:11
Weaponization of Government: A Call to Awareness

42:35
Weaponization of Government Power

46:58
The January 6th Protests: A Double Standard

47:30
Legal Charges and the Justice System

01:01:07
Sentencing and Political Critique

01:03:10
Exoneration and Moving Forward

Show Info
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Twitter
@KevinAMaley
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Email
ZipcodeZeroPodcast@gmail.com
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Music
Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

Transcript

Kevin Maley (00:00)
the reason I wanted to have you on the show is I think there's a lot of mythologizing about January 6th on both sides. And I feel like a lot of what happened is filtered through very closed media spaces. And I think that the mainstream corporate media has a very specific narrative that they fall on this.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (00:09)
Sure.

Kevin Maley (00:23)
What actually really interests me more than January 6th itself is how this was all processed through the justice system, which I think didn't get a lot of the scrutiny. And I think that allowed a lot of dangerous precedents and there's a sort of prosecutorial overreach.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (00:30)
Yes.

Kevin Maley (00:40)
that I think a lot of Americans should be worried about. a lot of people who were on the center-left and maybe even centrists themselves, there's not a lot of sympathy for the January 6th protesters. And so there's not a lot of attention paid to those abuses of the justice system and what happened.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (00:56)
and the implications

that go beyond those protesters, right?

Kevin Maley (00:59)
Yeah, exactly.

I don't think a lot of people realize you have this situation where hundreds of nonviolent protesters literally not charged with any violence, including yourself, charged under, an obscure provision of a law meant for accounting procedures, just so the prosecutors could add a felony. And I think people should be thinking, do we really want nonviolent protesters going to jail for years?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (01:15)
right.

Kevin Maley (01:24)
And even just from people on the left out of their own self-interest, thinking about an anti-war protest, environmental protest, people who are going to congressional hearings or nomination hearings like this week and disrupting because they don't like the nominee. Do we really think that those people should be put away for 10 to 20 years in prison for disrupting an official proceeding?

that is really what I wanted to dig in with you today

so just to kick things off, do you wanna tell us a little bit about yourself, your background?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (01:57)
Absolutely. So first of all, Kevin, thank you so much for having me on your show. I genuinely appreciate that. I'm really grateful and excited. Anytime I get to have genuine conversations with people that really want to discuss facts, discuss feelings, discuss ideas, and determine kind of who we are as Americans and where we're going. So you mentioned that a lot of your audience is in the center politically or even perhaps on the left. And what's interesting, you know, when you mentioned

January 6th as a topic is of course on all sides of the political spectrum, people kind of have this stereotype sort of idea of what J6 was and who was involved and what a January 6th protester is. I think I'm already sort of breaking that stereotype a little bit. I don't really look like what people assume middle of the country, redneck, domestic terrorist type, white extremists, whatever type phrases for these people. That's definitely not.

what my background is. I'm a lifelong artist. I'm from California. I've been working as an actor and a fashion model in LA and New York for over a decade prior to the COVID lockdowns. politically, I've always been more or less conservative, you would say, in the sense that I'm a pretty straightforward traditional Christian and

I come from that mindset that the Bible is truthful and it was the source of lot of insight that the founding fathers who built this country and started it, that they, you know, they refer to the ideas of natural law, which of course is so intrinsic to our declaration that was quite a miracle in term, historical miracle in terms of really defining that human rights are

pre-political.

A government doesn't grant you your rights. You inherently have them because they came from a great source, greater than the government, which I acknowledge and recognize as God. But the founding fathers said there is something. I mean, they called it God as well. We are one nation under God. And that's why they phrase it that way. Our rights are pre-political. So that's an important starting point that I had. But at the same time, I'm not your typical conservative person necessarily. I've been working in Hollywood and in the arts.

for a long time and I really enjoyed that field, I found that very disrupted by the COVID lockdowns. And I had a huge problem with that constitutionally, as well as a huge problem with the fact that I sniffed out really early on that most of the stuff being...

that we were being pummeled with in terms of messaging, in terms of media, in terms of the government, and then in terms of our lives being totally turned upside down. Most of that was very, very dishonest. Not just wildly inaccurate, but patently dishonest. That concerned me greatly. So I resisted that. started working in my own capacity just as an activist, as a citizen. I helped to start the Beverly Hills Freedom Rally in Los Angeles.

It blew up huge. We had tens of thousands of people coming through downtown Beverly Hills in support of basic constitutional freedoms against lockdowns. And that also, of course, coincided with the 2020 reelection of President Trump at that time. So I wasn't, it wasn't that I was hiding the fact that I supported President Trump or generally I fall on the Republican side of the political spectrum, but it was just more that I was a Hollywood guy, I was an actor, and I just recognized that what

was going on around us in terms of the media, terms of the government, in terms of the culture, there was just a frightening amount of dishonesty. And I could see where it was heading, which was towards socialistic mechanisms of reorienting how people perceive their government and what they understand their freedoms and obligations are in contrast to the obligations we hold the government to in terms of managing a society. So that's where I came from.

January 6th itself, I mentioned that I started this freedom rally and got involved in public activism in a way that I had previously never done. So I've been working in Hollywood as an actor. I wasn't really advocating conservative political views. You're not really allowed to do that in Hollywood. They cancel you.

Kevin Maley (06:02)
I was going to say it must

be hard to be a Republican in Hollywood.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (06:05)
Yeah, so I didn't represent as a Republican in that sense. Honestly, I'm pretty sick and tired of the dichotomy between Republicans and Democrats. I think it's largely a corrupt uniparty and I find it disgusting. So I have a very strong political interest now, but it's not along those stereotypical lines. But I just wasn't political in terms of working in Hollywood until the lockdowns. And then I just really felt called by God, honestly, to speak truth into what I saw as an incredible case.

chaotic,

just a mishmash of nonsense and downright nefarious lies and propaganda and just a lot of confusion and fear that was being weaponized and people were being exploited at various levels. So that's what got me into what I call the freedom fight. And, you know, that's not just a phrase either. Again, our founding fathers who were not Republican or Democrat when they first started, they were just settlers

freedom of religion and freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and no taxation without representation and these basic core ideas. That's who those people were. they were committed to those fundamental rights and values that allow everyone to have a fair chance at what they're trying to do in life. So that was my priority and my value.

In the course of the Freedom Rally, I met another...

civil rights activist who really was an anonymous physician just doing her job as an emergency doctor in an ER in LA for many years until these COVID lockdowns and lies really bothered her as well. And so she began to speak out against them simply from the standpoint of I'm just, I'm not going to refuse a safe medicine to a patient in front of me when I know it will save their life. She literally got fired from her job from two hospitals.

simply for exercising her licensed proper ability as a doctor to practice medicine. and by the way, she was prescribing a medication that's far safer than Tylenol, literally far safer than Tylenol. it's hydroxychloroquine. Yeah, so hydroxychloroquine.

Kevin Maley (08:00)
What was the medicine?

Okay.

I think they

admit that that's okay now.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (08:08)
I mean, they sort of admit a lot of things. I think they admit that the Hunter Biden laptop is actually his laptop and there's a bunch of pretty horrific stuff on there. Yeah, the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth is roughly six months or however long it takes for Joe Rogan to talk about it. And everyone's like, wait a minute. So yeah, but the point being that I had this interesting metamorphosis from being a

a Hollywood guy to a J6 defendant. Like, how did that happen? Who am I? How do I represent?

what happened on January 6th and what the implications of it are in terms of the people involved, in terms of the governmental issues that you mentioned, which are really important. I was in Washington, DC on January 6th, literally in my professional capacity, doing my job that day. since 2020, for last four years, I've been working full time for nonprofit. I'm the creative director at an organization called America's Frontline Doctors and now also GoldCare.com, medical freedom platform.

in response to those COVID issues, recognizing that many Americans, and this is certainly nonpartisan, Republican, Democrat, or otherwise, found it very concerning how wildly inaccurate, but also dishonest, the CDC, the NIH, the FDA, these agencies are clearly troubled with corruption and certainly with...

in an ineffective ability to serve the public in the manner that we expected them to. So there's a lot of people wanting truth and accountability in medicine and in healthcare. That's still an important issue. Obviously, we just saw the confirmation hearings with Bobby Kennedy. Those are causing a lot of waves, but he's a Democrat, right? And I'm a Republican. I absolutely am very excited about supporting Bobby Kennedy because he's not looking at this in a partisan way either. To him, this has nothing to do with being

Democrat or Republican has to do with our kids are dying and our nation is incredibly sick. And again, those are facts. You can't escape the reality of that, or if you try, it's going to get worse. So he's just trying to be honest about the problem and say, can we find solutions? That's supposed to be what the constitutional republic with democratic principles is supposed to facilitate.

You know, you and I get together from different sides of a political spectrum, but we are both Americans and we both agree in fundamental values. We want to see how we can continue to foster those for the success of our families and our future.

Kevin Maley (10:29)
So you mentioned you were already in January 6th that day, so you hadn't traveled for the rally, but I'm assuming you were aware of the rally. And then I think it started, what, early in the morning? By early, I mean, what, eight, nine, 10 o'clock going down to the ellipses.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (10:45)
Yeah, it was very early in the morning. And yes,

I was actually on a two week speaking tour with my colleague, Dr. Gold, who's the founder of Frontline Doctors in Gold Care. So we were both traveling the East coast for several weeks. And January 5th and January 6th were both dates in DC. January 5th speech went off without a problem, about 10,000 people there. And we knew we would essentially repeat the same speech, but we knew that there would be much larger crowd. They were anticipating a million or so people.

And I can certainly attest, having been there, that to my eyes, it looked like literally a million people. was the biggest crowd I've ever seen by far.

Kevin Maley (11:18)
So you give a speech at the rally, the original rally

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (11:21)
No, well, on January 5th, there was a speech at Freedom Plaza. On January 6th, there was a speech in the morning at the ellipse. We were not scheduled to participate in that event. We were in the audience. So we were, I mean, basically 30 foot from the stage where President Trump and others were speaking in the morning. Then we marched as did tens and really hundreds of thousands of people throughout the course of the day, marched from the ellipse up to the Capitol grounds where there were supposed to be afternoon speeches.

Kevin Maley (11:25)
I see, okay.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (11:49)
The event I was scheduled to participate in had a government approved permit. There were, I think, over a dozen different permits for various rallies, activities, a lot of different people doing different things that day. million plus people in downtown. was an enormous crowd. But quite a, you know, tens of thousands of them all went to the northeast corner of the Capitol grounds for this particular speech, which was supposed to include not only Dr. Gold, but Congress people like Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

There were a number of congressional representatives and we assumed their ancillary security details. We expected a stage, expected crowd control, we expected it to be organized. And then when we got there, we didn't see any of that. We just saw a bunch of people filling the plaza ready to hear speeches, but we couldn't see the infrastructure for them to happen. And so that's how we got involved in the crowd on the steps there on the East side. And then that's how we ended up eventually being flushed into the building.

Kevin Maley (12:37)
Connect.

And so just so I understand, because I wasn't aware of this, so the narrative that we hear through the sort corporate mainstream media is there's the rally down, and just so people know where this is, it's basically south, just directly south of the White House. And then, you know, obviously what happened at the Capitol, it's a mile or so down the road or up the road. you, yeah, yeah. And so the narrative is that Trump tells everyone to go up to the Capitol, but

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (13:06)
just about exactly now.

Kevin Maley (13:12)
It sounded like you mentioned there were already permits to have protests and events at the Capitol complex. And I think you said the Northeast corner of that.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (13:19)
Exactly. In other words, it wasn't

spontaneous. In fact, it had been advertised weeks in advance. There was a website and a flyer that said, speech in the morning at the ellipse, march to the Capitol, speech at the Capitol in the afternoon. It even said on the steps. The flyer actually said on the steps. So now technically the permit for the event wasn't on the steps itself. was.

Kevin Maley (13:42)
Yeah, was going to

say it would be weird if they because full Congress session, I can't imagine that they would allow a permit for protest on the steps of the Capitol. Yeah.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (13:48)
Right. So I'm not saying that technically there was a permit for

the steps, but the flyer widely publicized to the internet and the whole world for weeks and weeks before the said on the steps. the idea was we're gathering in DC, we're having a speech in the morning at the ellipse, you know, a special sacred area, and then we're going to have an afternoon series of events on Capitol grounds itself. And between the two, there's a march.

in the sense of a political protest march, which is, you know, of course done all the time. And then also counter to the typical narrative that you mentioned is that not only did Trump not incite the crowd to rush to the Capitol violently and attack the building, it was a scheduled peaceful march that people understood going in, they would start here, march there, and then continue with speeches which had permits. But he also explicitly said in his speech,

to be peaceful, to respect law enforcement and make sure there's no violence. It's recorded, he said it out loud, and then he reiterated it by publishing those statements to his social media. But the big tech entities erased it very quickly after he published those online and then basically pretended like he never said that and then tried to build this narrative that he incited violence when he actually didn't just not incite violence, he did the opposite.

He vocalized no violence, make sure you support the police officers, we're the party of law and order. So he had absolutely correct messaging and he did in my view, and it seems very legitimate if you understand all the facts and the things that have been erased from the record, he did what was appropriate and necessary and what was in his power to prevent violence and try to encourage people to do what they're supposed to do, but in the right manner. Also, I'm a-

Kevin Maley (15:35)
Yeah, I

would say just to be fair to the other side, I think some of the criticism that he gets is he had tweets when he was being asked to tweet that people should leave the Capitol complex, he had tweets effectively justifying their grievances saying, you know, this wouldn't have happened if I don't know, Mike Pence had done XYZ. I don't I'm not saying he incited violence. I think that's a very weak case against him.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (16:00)
Right.

Kevin Maley (16:01)
I

think a lot of people listening will have that in their mind that there were those other tweets that he had not calling for violence, but not exactly being helpful for a little while.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (16:10)
Yeah, I understand those comments. Again, I just don't think that they're an honest representation of what happened to that day and what any given person was trying to do, President Trump or otherwise. President Trump tweets all kinds of things, obviously. He had a lot of grievances. I happened to share most of them. At least, I would say, close to half the country or maybe a full half the country shared the grievances. Whether we were right or not really isn't the point, though.

The point is the First Amendment explicitly enumerates a redress of grievances. That's literally the point. So if you're missing that, you're going to kind of miss what really matters here. But I also just think I think it should really disturb people and concern them much more that President Trump did authorize National Guard and say, we need some serious boots on the ground because we're getting intelligence, which the FBI was a part of.

facilitate or obtaining intelligence to say we have potential threats, we have concerns about this or that happening. And then of course you would say, well, then let's be prepared. So let's have a good body of bodies there. 10,000 National Guard Trump authorized it, did his part legally. But then the handoff is required by law that the speaker of the house and the mayor. So that's Pelosi and Bowser then complete the handoff from their part. And they explicitly.

failed to do that. And I think that was a massive failing. And there are many failings, certainly of the government, and also failings of citizens that all combined to create what ended up being, of course, a tragic and at times a violent event on January 6, which none of us wanted to happen. But I'm very concerned about the government misconduct and malfeasance, because that's much more dangerous than any given individual on a given day.

And I think everyone, whether you're Democrat or Republican or otherwise, should be, you know, really concerned about, well, I don't agree with Trump, perhaps. And I think he says a lot of obnoxious things or he wasn't helpful during that day in this sense of that. But is it true that he did his part, his responsibility of saying, we need troops on the ground and authorize them, and then other people foiled that effort?

Why would they do that? So I think that's pretty concerning. I think it's something we need to review.

Kevin Maley (18:26)
Yeah.

And so what happened when you got up to the hill? So you go up to Capitol Hill for this other sort of expanded protest or event or whatever, and there's a lot of people had gone from the ellipse up to the hill. So then what happens from there where then people wind up inside of the Capitol itself?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (18:44)
Right.

Well, what didn't happen was that the National Guard wasn't there, as I just mentioned. So there was almost no law enforcement presence or crowd control organization and mechanism. I mean, there was really kind of nothing. There was just a bunch of people.

Kevin Maley (19:04)
Did

Capitol Hill police there?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (19:07)
I saw about five or six agents total on the East side. Now I'm not on the West side, which ended up being kind of a war zone and kind of crazy there. A lot more law enforcement presence there. There was also a lot of insurgent activity with masked individuals that I don't know have ever been identified or charged. A lot of crazy stuff. On the East side, prior to when I got there, I think Mike Pence's motorcade came in and then departed.

But I wasn't there. That happened probably while the speech was going on at the ellipse. I left the ellipse when President Trump was still going. He ran late and we were supposed to be there at one. We left at one and arrived at two. A few minutes after 2 p.m., at this point, I didn't see any barricades or any police other than those five or six officers I mentioned that were all the way at the top of the steps. Sort of, it looked like just sort of ceremonially in front of the door. It did not seem like there was an actual police presence to facilitate a speech event that would be attended by tens or hundreds of thousands.

So that was just bizarre. And then.

Kevin Maley (20:08)
Or just the fact that

it was a full session of, I mean, both houses of Congress were in session then. It seems weird that they would not have a lot of security for, you know, the Senate and the House of Representatives being in the same building.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (20:18)
Well, it just, it just, it's crazy

that they didn't have a lot of security, just generally speaking, knowing that there was a scheduled rally that was attracting hundreds of thousands of people. That was not a surprise. Not only that, we had already done it twice before. There was a big rally in November and another one in December. January was the third kind of consecutively that we're building up. And the, believe the police,

department estimates of the crowd size for the December rally were between four and 800,000 people. So the police estimated we had exceeded a half a million people in that December rally. And then everyone there said, we're coming back in January. It's the last hurrah. It's the last chance we have to make our claim that we want an audit of the election because it's the certification day. So they knew at least roughly half a million or more were coming.

You can't just have six cops on the steps. That's insane, obviously. Major breakdown there. But again, it was a confusing moment when it happened. We were looking for a stage or some way to do a speech. The audience is filing in. This is how I describe it for people. Imagine you were at the Super Bowl. So first of all, the Super Bowl isn't like an afterthought. It's planned the year in advance every year. And people that go plan for a year in advance to get their plane tickets and clear their schedule and...

fly and get a hotel and then travel to the stadium and then get into your seat, right? It's a, this, all of this. So imagine you're finally in your seat at the Super Bowl and it's like five minutes to game time, or actually maybe it's five minutes past then and they're running late. You're like, my God, we're at the Super Bowl, let's go, it's game time. And the announcer's like, we're so sorry, they're like, like one of the teams didn't make the bus, so we're just gonna cancel, we'll come back and do the Super Bowl next year. Like, what do you think the crowd in that stadium is going to do?

I mean, I'm not exactly sure what they're going to do, but they're not just going to quietly just get up and leave, right? That's not happening. So that was kind of the dynamic at play. Um, and essentially what happened was shortly thereafter, the doors opened from the inside after people were standing on the steps and you know, what do you think's going to happen? Everyone's there waiting to do something. They're kind of packed in at this point because everyone traveled from the ellipse.

Kevin Maley (22:11)
Right?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (22:33)
to the East side where I was, or many of them, tens of thousands. So a very large crowd.

Kevin Maley (22:38)
Were there people trying

to get inside before the door is open though? And I would imagine were there multiple points of entry?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (22:43)
Some of them certainly were, yeah.

Some of them certainly were. I could actually, because I was on the steps at this point and I didn't know what was happening because again, was, no, no, East Side, I was always on the East Side. Yeah. Yeah. So my colleague said, you know, the crowd is clearly moving towards the steps because they're not really sure what else to do. It's sort of a vantage point like, hey, we're going to stand here, wave our flags and do our protest and, you know, whatever.

Kevin Maley (22:50)
On the, and you said you're on the west side of the Capitol? Or you're on the east side of the Capitol, I'm sorry.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (23:09)
So she thought, well, maybe some of them can hear me if I stand on a balcony. And it looked like that was possible. There were balconies on either side. So we thought if we can get a balcony position and she could just start speaking, maybe people would kind of focus in on that. would bring some purpose to the crowd. But it was just too chaotic. It just wasn't possible. We literally couldn't make our way to that part. We kind of got up the steps and squished back towards the center.

because there were people interested in the doors. Now here's a detail that I'm sure most people haven't really heard or really paid attention to. The Columbus doors, they're very famous. The east side of the Capitol, very large grand ceremonial steps lead up to this door. The Columbus doors themselves are 10,000 pounds of bronze, beautiful, historic. And that door is not really used for daily traffic, it's for ceremonial events.

And so largely those doors are closed. Now there's two sets of doors, the 10,000 pound Browns outer doors and then modern inner doors. And the outer doors, and I don't know when or how, but they're very heavy and the government is supposed to monitor when they're closed or not. They had been opened. So simply opening those outer doors visually makes it look like you're supposed to go in. Cause that's kind of the point of them.

or at least like someone's coming in or going out. So there were definitely people on the steps looking inside the, so there's glass windows on the inner doors. The bronze outer doors had been opened. Now you can see the inner doors with glass windows and you can somewhat see through the windows. You can't see clearly, but you could see that there were people inside. So,

Kevin Maley (24:29)
Why do you think they would do that?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (24:50)
I'm standing on the steps, kind of squished at this point. It's like a mosh pit. I literally couldn't have escaped it if I wanted to at that point. I was kind of wishing I could get out. You know, once we had gotten up to the steps, tried to get to the balcony, wasn't going to work. And then I was thinking, okay, this is a whole lot of people smashed up on the steps. And apparently the speeches aren't happening and I don't know why. So these people need to be a little bit better organized and be dispersed, or maybe they're going to open the doors and let people inside. Because I'm looking through the window and I can see, I can see like the forms of heads.

inside the building. Now mind you, I actually didn't realize in that moment that they were holding the certification vote at that moment. I just didn't remember that it was happening because I was not focused on the certification event. I was just focused for that whole week on the travel that I had and the events that we were doing. So I legitimately wasn't even thinking that there would be a lot of activity inside the Capitol building.

But of course the certification was happening so there was. I just hadn't put two and two together at that moment. But I saw inside like, okay, there's people. So I wasn't sure what was happening. The doors then opened from the inside. So that seemed like they were, they opened up from the inside. I got pushed in because there were people behind me and I was pretty close to that point. And as soon as I stumbled through the door, I literally had to catch Dr. Gold because she almost fell. This is all on video by the way. If you go to johnstrand.com,

I have a 14 minute video of the government surveillance footage, which shows the whole thing. My whole time in the cap in the Capitol, I was there for 48 minutes. just time compressed it for the parts that are boring where nothing happens so that you can watch me go the whole way through. And then you can see, did this guy like do anything wrong or was he clearly an innocent bystander just caught up in the craziness? So the doors opened, I catch Dr. Gold before she gets trampled and I just, you know,

Kevin Maley (26:22)
Mm-hmm.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (26:37)
guide her straight ahead to get out of it because it was condensed and chaotic at that point in those doors. But the first thing I noticed as I'm guiding her through is I'm like, there's cops in here and there's a bunch of people in here milling around. But the people I saw, including the police officers inside the building, were not stressed out or hectic. They were kind of just moving around. I looked at some of them and none of them gave me any visual indication or a signal or a command of what to do or where to go.

And I just followed people in front of me until I found myself in the rotunda with the red velvet ropes. And I just stayed inside the red velvet ropes thinking, this is bizarre. I didn't think they were going to open the doors and let protesters in the building, but it seems like that's what they did. So let's figure out how to get out of here. And it took some time to do that. Eventually we did. And that was pretty much the long and short of my story of being inside the Capitol building.

Kevin Maley (27:26)
So then, presumably you go back to your hotel or wherever you were staying. And when did you first get whiff of the idea that you were going to be prosecuted? Did someone reach out to you? Because I know there's this nationwide manhunt afterwards to get everyone. And by the way, to be just for those listening.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (27:31)
Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kevin Maley (27:47)
You were never, and I think we'll go over your charges later, but you were never charged with any violence. So as you tell this story of going in and out, even if anyone is skeptical, people have skepticism about January 6th, there's never any charge of violence on your part. I know there's others who did have that, but the videos for the vast majority are non-violent.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (28:05)
Yeah, that's correct. In my case, there were not

charges of violence and

I always encourage people to be really cautious about what I really think is a false dichotomy that's been presented between violent and nonviolent. So much of the violence is very fraudulent. It's dishonestly misrepresented. Some of it's just flat out lies. But there obviously is actual violence that did occur. just, it really matters that we understand the truth and the context and also that we're...

considering each individual's behavior on their own merit, because again, that's a sacred value that we all share, that you're judged on your conduct, not by a group. And that was obliterated with January 6, which is really terrible. But yeah, I didn't have violent charges. You asked me a question, I'm sorry, about...

Kevin Maley (28:36)
Yep, I think that's fair.

So then, what,

so you go back to wherever you were staying and then you flew back to what, LA or something? And how did you find out you were gonna be charged?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (28:51)
right, how did I know? Yeah.

We actually stood on the steps after exiting the building for almost an hour, just chit chatting with random strangers who were all there, kind of recounting what had happened over the course of the whole day. Remember, we started at seven or eight in the morning. Most of it was peaceful and really enjoyable, actually. And then those couple of hours got crazy and it was very bizarre and concerning. But from my personal viewpoint, I didn't actually observe

violent conflict of people hitting each other or anything like that. I didn't observe vandalism. I did see one guy try to break a window briefly, that's the extent of any crime. Like that was unlawful. He shouldn't have done that, of course. That's the only thing I personally observed like that. Mostly I was just caught up in a crazy crowd and then suddenly was in the building sort of yearly, like a high school field trip flashback. Like I'm in the Capitol, this is so crazy.

The whole thing was just weird. But then I got out and it was like, okay, well, I guess that settled down. And we just talked on the steps and then went back to our hotel. And then the next day, of course, we're hearing media reports and it's getting more and more aggressive and bombastic and hyperbolic. And then someone sends me an FBI most wanted poster. And I'm on it. I'm in the top row of the FBI's most wanted lineup.

Kevin Maley (30:02)
Yeah.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (30:07)
of FBI seeking information on violent incident at the Capitol. So that was somewhat of a clue, but honestly, I mean, we were hearing so much of this from mainstream media, which I don't trust at all anymore. They've lost a ton of credibility. So I kind of expect them to misrepresent things, especially when it's framed against.

Republicans and certainly anyone connected with Trump, the mainstream media has no love lost for him, obviously. So I wasn't really sure how legitimately, the whole thing seemed insane to me. I was there, so I knew I didn't do anything violent and most of the people around me didn't do anything violent. There was caught in the crowd. But that FBI most wanted poster was bizarre. It did specifically say, we're looking for information on anyone who committed violence.

I mean, they had like 30 different cell phone snapshots of various people. I was in one of them, but I thought, okay, anyone, mean, first of all, I'm somewhat recognizable. so people might be like, look at that guy. Like Hollywood dude, what was he doing in the Capitol? But they can call me and ask me and clarify, know, did you do anything violent? I was waiting for the police to contact me if they, cause I was on the poster. But I knew I didn't do anything violent, so I didn't.

I didn't perceive that they were like, we're going to nail this guy and try to destroy him. It was more, we're looking for information from these various pictures we've seen in case one of them is involved in something that we need to pursue and to prosecute. But I never got that call from the cops. I just had my door pulverized by a battering ram, literally, at a condo in downtown Beverly Hills on a Monday morning while I'm just working on a conference call. And my life was changed forever.

Kevin Maley (31:40)
So who was that? Was that the FBI?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (31:42)
It was the FBI along with other law enforcement agencies that were, think, soldiers, essentially. mean, a complete SWAT team violent assault that you would expect to be delivered on a drug cartel.

Kevin Maley (31:52)
like decked out in their camo or whatever.

and there's no

knock on the door, they just come right in.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (32:03)
They did knock, but they knocked and then beat the door down very quickly. So I didn't even have a chance to get that. But it's terrifying. It is so loud when they assault your home. The yelling is so loud, I felt my head vibrating. Screaming, boot stomping, metal sounds. You instantly realize you are under attack. You are terrified. You just have this instinctive reaction like I'm about to be

slaughtered. I'm in downtown Beverly Hills. It doesn't make any sense. I'm not in a neighborhood where that kind of stuff would be happening. So I'm thinking, is this a terrible prank or are these criminals that are trying to attack me? I couldn't even process that it was legitimately law enforcement. And they broke the door to pieces before I could even collect my thoughts. I was on a conference call with

Kevin Maley (32:48)
And you were on a call?

Was it a video

call?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (32:53)
I don't think it was a video call actually, no. I think it was a phone call. But there were four people on the call, myself and my colleague were physically in the room there, and then at least two other colleagues were on the meeting. And we're just like, whoa. And yeah, it just came crashing in.

Kevin Maley (32:55)
That'd be awkward.

So they come in, do they formally arrest you and do you get your Miranda rights when they came in?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (33:17)
I did not

get Miranda rights. I had laser sight on my chest bobbing like I was about to be shot. These guys had machine guns all in black. They were screaming, get down on the ground. It was a take down. I was pushed to the ground. I was immediately shackled. They hauled us out to cars, separate cars, put us in different cars, held us there for three hours where they ransacked the apartment. Then they took us to a jail.

still didn't explain what was going on, never gave me a phone call, held me overnight, then took me to a different jail and disappeared me for what ended up being a total of four days. I was disappeared for four days. My family, my colleagues, no one knew where I was. No one heard from me. No one told them what had happened. No one told them how to get a hold of me. They, no one even knew if I was alive for four days.

Kevin Maley (34:03)
So four days

with no, because I'm not 100 % sure, but I think they're allowed to detain you for 24 hours without a lawyer. Don't quote me on that, that might be wrong, but certainly not four days just.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (34:15)
They can detain you, but

I don't know that they can just say, yeah, you can't talk to a lawyer or have a phone call. Yeah, that.

Kevin Maley (34:20)
Okay, that might be, yeah, you're right. Maybe it's

24 hours without a formal charge or something.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (34:25)
Yes, yeah, they can hold you without a charge for 24 hours. I think it's 24, but it's definitely at least 24. That is definitely correct, I think. Not four days, not four days. And they're not supposed to...

Kevin Maley (34:28)
Okay.

but not four days of captivity with no lawyer, no. And you were never told

in the four days what you were being charged with?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (34:38)
No, I wasn't told anything. I was told nothing.

Kevin Maley (34:40)
What were you asking

for an attorney? I feel like I'd just be screaming attorney. I want an attorney.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (34:44)
I kept just asking for a

phone call and the prison guards just said, you have to talk to this other person to get a code to use the phone. I'm like, where's the other person? No one ever came.

Kevin Maley (34:55)
Were you in, do know if

you were in Los Angeles or did they take you outside the city somewhere?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (35:00)
I was in Los Angeles.

Kevin Maley (35:01)
Were you alone in your cell? Do you know if you're in like county lockup or is this a special place for?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (35:06)
It was a federal facility.

was Los Angeles MDC, Metropolitan Detention Centers, a federal holding facility. The FBI brought me there along with, or with...

brought me there. I think it was the FBI actually. And yeah, held there. So held for a total between two facilities of four days with no phone call and no and no other information. And there was a bang on the door at the end of the fourth day. Like pack up your shit. I was like, I don't have anything but okay. And then they got me on the street. They just literally like, there you go. I had nothing to my name. I had to find out

Kevin Maley (35:32)
Did they take your shoelaces and all that stuff?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (35:41)
I got someone to tell me who my public defender was that was assigned to me. And they had an office in downtown. So they figured out where that was, walked to the office, got a phone from them. And I found out that my colleague had used a private investigator to figure out where I was and force the government to process bail to bail me out. So then four days later, I got bailed out. My colleague picked me up. And then, you know, we've been at war ever since for those four years.

figuring out what in the heck just happened. It was insane.

Kevin Maley (36:12)
Do you know if that was common

for other January 6 protesters to get that kind of treatment? In terms of the, I don't even want to call it an arrest because it was not a formal arrest, but having basically like your drug lord or your Osama bin Laden treatment.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (36:18)
Yes.

Yeah, no, sadly, it's very common. There are many, many, many instances documented of these really violent and really just horrific abuses of the fearsome power that we give our government in terms of weaponized SWAT teams, which you want to support those guys and you want to think that they're keeping your families and your communities safe when they actually assault drug lords, when they assault cartels and armed militant.

terrorists. And of course for four years they didn't just do it and say oops they did it and kept pressing the issue for four years telling the whole world and the country through mainstream media that myself and J6ers broadly are violent domestic terrorists. I mean they don't just say it by the way either. They put us on government terrorist watch lists which by the way that has very damaging effects that causes pain to you in your life.

You are discriminated against, are precluded from participation in things, you are... Like, someone just got killed. Shot and killed a day or two after the pardon. He was held in a traffic stop. Now, yeah, so this still has to be investigated. I'm not making a proclamation here, I'm speculating. But I think it's legitimate speculation to ask, was he still on that terrorist watch list, which puts...

Kevin Maley (37:33)
I saw that, yeah.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (37:47)
police and heightened alert and can often lead to violence that was not necessary. But there's many examples of how being on these terrorist lists, and I document some of them in my book, are used to persecute people. So the process is the punishment, is the saying, but it's very true. And the extent of it will shock you when you dig the, again, it would take much longer than this to go through those details. I have many of them in my book. I wrote a book in prison called Patriot Plee.

definitely encourage people to read that. You can pre-order it at johnstrand.com. But there are gonna be many J-6ers, particularly now that they have been freed from this weaponized system, they've been given the license, the freedom to actually speak truthfully instead of being coerced by these fraudulent plea deals that were sledgehammered on them with this 20-year felony and so forth. Many of these people allegedly admitted guilt.

and pled guilty and then, know, but so much of that was fraudulent and built on a lot of lies and a lot of illegal, malicious behavior on the part of the DOJ, which we, you know, we need to dig into that. And, now that they're able to freely speak truth about who they are what they experienced, more stories are going to be coming out. We're highlighting them at a website called we are j6.com. It's really important for the American public to hear these stories and realize the truth of what happened. Again, it's nonpartisan. So really doesn't have anything to do with if you're a Trump supporter or.

Or even if there's an allegation that someone is violent or assaulted a police officer. We never condone violence and we certainly don't condone assaulting police officers. That is terrible. We condemn that. Absolutely. But what we also condemn are lies and propaganda, especially if the government is fabricating and weaponizing lies and propaganda against citizens. Then we have a... That's fascism. That is what fascism is.

And what we are seeing is the legalization of fascism in America right now, in terms of what's happened under the Biden administration for the last four years. And that's why you're seeing President Trump come out so strongly in this new term with an executive order against government weaponization and a lot of the rhetoric that Trump and the America First movement has been using. I understand that from a Democrat party perspective or the other side of the political spectrum, there's different views of that rhetoric.

But the rhetoric comes from a place of addressing some really tangible and troublesome issues, some of which personally affected me, devastated my life, honestly, and there are many more that have been devastated far worse than myself.

Kevin Maley (40:16)
Yeah, just two things I want to hammer in is I think people want to always have what's called the sympathetic victim. And just thinking about the way that you were treated, the way that you were detained, don't know what to call it because I don't want to call it an arrest because there's actually formal legal procedures for an arrest. But coming into your condo like that, taking you away for four days. If you, I want people listening or watching to think,

If you were not a someone protesting at what's described as a pro-Trump rally, but you were an anti-war protest, or if this was, I don't know, like a civil rights or a Black Lives Matter protest, and then you got that kind of treatment, I think people on the left would view it completely differently. And I wish people would think it doesn't matter what the person is actually protesting. If you have a principle of

law and the justice system in our own civil rights in the Constitution, those should be applied completely equally. It's kind of when people talk about free speech and supporting that, whether or not you agree with what the person is saying. So I think anyone should be appalled and actually horrified to hear about this kind of treatment, no matter what you were protesting. And frankly, even if you were, I know you weren't, but even if there was a charge of like breaking a window or something, that does not justify that kind of treatment.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (41:16)
due process.

Absolutely.

Kevin Maley (41:42)
And then secondly, just the way you described the feds coming in and being detained, think, the sort of terrorism apparatus of all this, I think a lot of people forget the kind of security state that was erected in this country after 9-11 with a lot of temporary laws, like the Patriot Act, and we've got surveillance laws, a lot of which are unconstitutional, but they were,

into place under a temporary basis and the American people were told that that would protect us from foreign terrorists like Al-Qaeda and it would stop Osama bin Laden from flying another plane into New York. But as a lot of people on the left, not the center left, but the left at the time and then the libertarian right at the time were warning that these laws will probably become permanent, not temporary, and then turned back against the American people domestically. And that's, I think, what we're seeing

very clearly with what happened with the January 6th protest and many other events we're seeing this kind of terrorism apparatus turned domestically when we were told it was only going to be used externally.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (42:37)
Yes.

Right, I mean it's being used against Catholics and moms and dads at school boards, being used against protesters at abortion clinics and various things. So again, like you said, everyone should have the right and the freedom to believe whatever they believe in and advocate for it.

But when you allow the government to weaponize its power against citizens and certainly bypassing or obliterating due process, you're in a very, very dangerous place. political persecution is not partisan. It will eventually turn every direction. we see this if we study history. We look at communism, particularly communist dictatorships, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, many examples, and they follow the playbook because it works.

the same thing over and over. And they identify certain groups to isolate, demonize, and undermine them. And then they turn to another, but you eventually cannibalize it and it turns on yourself. So we need to be vigilant against that. And like you said, January 6th, the concerns here are far broader than the event itself and the people, the citizens involved. So I do have a very different perspective on.

why we were there, how we were treated, than people on the left probably would have. But even if you...

just set aside our disagreements or our differences on politics and policy, just the recognition of the fundamental need for equality, for equal protection under the law, that's a total sacred guarantee, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, which was clearly violated in a very, very aggressive and extensive way, just comparing BLM Antifa

the type protest actions that we saw over the course of 2020, which many people involved in that had a great motivation and a heart for seeking justice for all people, including minority communities that oftentimes bear a more difficult burden in various ways. the idea of saying we want Black lives to matter as much as every other life is a...

It's an admirable sentiment. And there were plenty of people participating in the BLM protests during that summer 2020 campaign season who were not violent and didn't want to see violence. But inevitably, or we can't escape the fact that the damage involved in some of those events was incredibly extensive. So we're talking multiple billions of dollars of damage. We're talking dozens of people killed, including police officers. Now,

You hold that up against January 6th, it wasn't a pretty day, of course, and we all wish it could have been prevented, but it was a fraction, I mean, hardly a fraction of the cost and damage, and no police officers were killed on January 6th. There were four protesters that were killed directly by police actions, which is very concerning, but even if you were to say they were equal, which they were not, they weren't treated equally at all.

the treatment of January Sixers compared to most people involved in the BLM protests. And I'm specifically speaking of those that actually were involved in violence and damage. Again, many people participated with absolutely noble intentions and weren't involved in anything illegal at all, which is fine. But those who were involved in violence, damage, theft, destruction, et cetera, most of them were not even charged. And many that were charged, charges were frequently dropped. Dropped!

Kevin Maley (46:06)
Mm-hmm.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (46:08)
So they never entered the criminal prosecution system.

the criminal justice system. Kamala Harris was famous for publicly supporting efforts to raise money to bond them out of jail if they were initially jailed. That was before they went to trial. None of that happened for J6ers, right? So it's really quite a stark contrast. And again, if you dig into the details of what actually happened on January 6th and why it happened, it becomes even more concerning. But just taking it kind of on a surface level, there's a clear double standard there.

And that should concern everyone because again, next time when we're protesting for the black community or for any number of issues that the left is sensitive to, as they should be, we want to make sure that the law is applied equally, fairly, in an ethical manner and that it is not weaponized by partisans to exploit people for personal or political agendas.

Kevin Maley (46:59)
Yeah. And it shouldn't matter what you were protesting when you're charged. And speaking of charges, so I want to talk about that aspect of your experience. So I had read that you were found guilty of five offenses. One of them was a felony. And I kind of want to put a pin in the felony because that's really want to get into that. The felony was obstruction of official proceeding. And then the rest were misdemeanors. Were you

Were you charged with anything that you were not found guilty of? know, did you, okay. So this is what you were charged with and you're, okay.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (47:31)
No, no, I was convicted of every charge in the DC court. Yeah. It

was interesting. So I was arrested in January of 2021 and then had an arraignment within a month or so to get a sense of what am I actually being charged with? OK, it's a 20-year felony, four misdemeanors.

The felony is 1512. They call this obstruction of justice or obstruction of an official proceeding, but the actual title of 1512, which is the statute I was charged with, is tampering with a witness, victim, or informant, which is so bizarre. And then when you read the history of the actual law, it's even more bizarre because you realize they wrote it.

to prevent and criminalize someone who corruptly, knowing they're doing wrong and intending to subvert the criminal justice system from prosecuting bad actors, those who tamper with a witness to change what their testimony might be or an informant or affect evidence like documents. This was written specifically because after the Enron Energy scandal,

They had a third party accounting firm that handled their documents and they shredded some of the documents that the government later wanted for the trial. Now, I've read further about this case. I think the entire case is very concerning. I think it might be a sham, honestly, but we'll leave that aside. If you take it at face value that an accounting firm shredded documents corruptly, meaning they knew the documents would, would, would,

you know, implicate criminal activity on someone, so they erased it in order to hide that from the government, that is obstruction of justice. So that is what that law was intended to address. Tampering with a witness, victim, or informant. How does that have anything to do with political protesters standing on the Capitol, which is the representative branch, that's the legislature? Obstruction of justice, of course, is speaking about the criminal justice system. So it's talking about

trials with the third branch. We're at the people's house, the capital building that represents the first branch, the direct representatives of the people, where by and large they are supposed to be participatory.

I'm not obviously talking about technicalities that there are rules about when and how you can enter the Capitol building, which of course there are, but we understand why those got confused that day. But just the idea of this 1512 being used against political protesters, it's like the wrong branch of government has nothing to do with the circumstances of the event itself. It was clearly shoehorned in order to terrify people with a 20 year felony into taking plea deals that they otherwise would not have accepted. So what's interesting in my case is that

I was given what I call a golden parachute plea deal. I'm not aware of too many people that had this. I don't know of anyone that had a plea deal that I did and declined it. I know some people that declined plea deals and went to trial, but I think typically the plea deal that they were given still included felonies and multiple years in prison. So then at that point, you're kind of screwed either way. So maybe go to trial on principle because you want to plead your case.

Kevin Maley (50:31)
Mm-hmm.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (50:39)
But in my situation, I was facing 23 years of potential prison between all these charges, half million dollars of fines. Basically, your life is destroyed. It's over. Or you could take a single misdemeanor. A single misdemeanor. That would have been a slap on the wrist. I might have had a week in jail at most, and I would have been done with this two years ago and been living my life. So who declines a plea deal like that? I mean, objectively, it's insane, actually. Especially because I knew I wasn't going to win a trial.

Kevin Maley (50:52)
Hmm.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (51:07)
zero chance I was going win a trial. would be. Yeah.

Kevin Maley (51:09)
because just start to interrupt real quick, but would you be

tried in DC?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (51:13)
That's the main reason that there was zero chance I would be acquitted at trial.

Kevin Maley (51:19)
And

just so people understand, the reason being that a DC jury would pull from a DC population, which is not only very, very liberal, but had been inundated with a lot of framing around the January 6 events. It would be very difficult for anyone to find a jury that was not impartial in Washington, DC. Yeah.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (51:38)
Yeah, mean, objectively impossible. mean, and

when I say objectively, I'm talking about hard numbers. So DC statistics, they are 92, 93, close to 95 % hardcore anti-Trump. They voted for Biden and Kamala and not only that, they viciously, they hate Trump. I mean, it's pretty well known. I don't think anyone's really arguing that point. And the numbers in terms of that animosity, that animus,

are staggering, well over 90%. And of course, as a January 6th defendant, you are inextricably linked with Trump. So that alone is a really undeniable level of bias that's, I mean, you can't just pretend that's not there. And the law is not ambiguous. The law is clear. If there is an appearance of bias or impropriety, then these measures must be followed.

Kevin Maley (52:14)
Mm.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (52:32)
So in this case, you would entertain a change of venue when you can demonstrate that the venue, meaning the location, the geographical area is irredeemably tainted in terms of the bias. Again, those numbers speak for themselves. And that's before you get to the point you also mentioned, which is a very valid point as well. The January 6th select committee, and wait till we get to the irony about that related to my felony, it's gonna blow your mind. But.

just the nature of that committee, what they were doing, they were putting on prime time hearings.

night after night to the whole country, which they brought in fancy Hollywood producers to put together and augment the audio so it sounded more dramatic. And, you know, of course, selectively editing only the parts that served their version of the story and demonizing people. I mean, I'm not surprised that half the country thinks I'm a domestic terrorist and a white supremacist and people think I'm a traitor and I'm disgusting. I should be rotting in prison for the rest of my life. I mean, it's not necessarily surprising they think that based on the story they're being told.

But that story is wildly untrue and it's incredibly insidious if you think about it because none of us should be wanting to hang people out to dry.

for the sake of selling a story that advances our partisan political agendas, if it's very clear that at least some of those people are totally innocent, caught up in a complex situation, there was no attempt at nuance or really a truthful investigation of who were the bad guys and who were the innocent bystanders. It was like, everyone here was terrible.

And comparing it to 9-11 and Pearl Harbor, which is disgraceful to the victims of 9-11 and Pearl Harbor, to be honest, it's also just objectively ridiculous. No one called the BLM riots of 2020 Pearl Harbor or 9-11, but the death toll and the price tag of all the damage was greater by a factor of 10 or 100.

Kevin Maley (54:14)
It's very dramatic.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (54:27)
And of course I'm not saying that we should call BLM riots, 9-11 or Pearl Harbor. That's ridiculous. And it's disgraceful, but that's what the January 6th select committee was, was participating in creating that narrative and trumpeting it in a way that only they had the power to do. And so of course, a DC jury was affected by that as well. had people in my, and I tell this story in the book, by the way, these stories will blow your mind. They're amazing. They're wild, but jury selection, my trial spanned nine days. What a marathon.

interesting day of the trial was the very first day jury selection. These jury selection stories are insane and people were crying their eyes out. It felt like I was on set at a reality TV show where they were trying to recruit the extras and everyone wanted to be on the show so they were emoting in such a way that they would get chosen for this. I'm sure some of them were genuine in their feelings but it just seems they were crying about

Kevin Maley (55:18)
What were they crying about?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (55:20)
The narrative that the January 6th select committee had built and created over a period of years, my trial was September, 2022. So this was a full year and a half after the event. And of course, this story has been dramaticized and hyperbolized and weaponized.

in a manner we haven't seen in modern times for a year and a half. So it was saturated the world over and certainly in Washington DC where of course again the numbers speak for themselves 90, 95 percent pretty hardcore partisan in one direction and I was the enemy of that direction or perceived as such. I had, I,

I don't think it was credible for anyone to suggest that anyone was gonna get a fair trial and certainly not that I was going to be acquitted, but knowing that I was not going to be acquitted and also knowing that absolutely I am innocent. I know that because I am me. I walked my own shoes. I know what I did. I also know what my mindset was and mens rea is a legal requirement of the five statutes that I was charged with. All five of them require that I had mens rea.

Kevin Maley (56:22)
Hmm.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (56:28)
of a guilty intention at some level. And I know I had no guilty intention, because I'm me. But also you can see the evidence on the video and you can see he doesn't meet any of the elements of these charges for which he was indicted.

Kevin Maley (56:41)
Yeah, I really want to circle back on the felony charge because I think there's such an important point that I really want to hammer home is that for hundreds and hundreds of defendants that the justice system, the Department of Justice was trying to prosecute, they found that they really didn't have a lot of things they could charge the mostly nonviolent protesters with that would have them face serious jail time. I mean, there are charges and I think you had these misdemeanor charges of

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (57:05)
Right.

Kevin Maley (57:11)
entering, remaining in restricted building, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a capital building, picketing in a capital building. So these are all misdemeanor offenses, meaning they're very lesser charges and you're probably not gonna get jail time. If you get jail time, it's gonna be very minor. And this is the situation that most January 6th defendants were in. It was not gonna be a lot of jail time. And I think, I would hope most people would

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (57:18)
picketing and creating and capital building.

Kevin Maley (57:38)
agree with that, think that's justified because sometimes people are at a protest, things get out of control, you break into the chancellor's office or whatever, and you are technically committing a misdemeanor or something like that. But there is, I think that was a frustration of the Department of Justice that they could not put long prison sentences on. So they found this felony charge and a law called Sarbanes-Oxley, as you were explaining earlier,

This was a law that was passed after the Enron scandal of 25 years ago. And it had to do with the accountants at Arthur Anderson were shredding documents and the federal government, Congress wanted to pass a law to kind of up the felony on that having to do with obstruction of justice, obstruction of official proceeding. Again, the official proceeding, the intent of the law being

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (58:08)
Yes.

Kevin Maley (58:31)
you know, an investigation where accountants are shredding documents. And this was kind of picked out of this law and then used against yourself and hundreds of other January 6th defendants to take what would have been half a year or two year in jail, if that, and then get you a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for a nonviolent protest where you entered a building that you shouldn't have entered. And I just, again,

I want to hammer home, wish people would put themselves in the perspective of this being a different protest. If this was a protest where they are authorizing the invasion of Iraq 20 years ago and you have some protesters who go in and they wave signs around and they try to disrupt the vote or something like that. Or as I mentioned at the top of this program, protesters in congressional hearings, you have.

this group Code Pink, who I have lot of admiration for being very anti-war myself, but they disrupt a lot of congressional hearings. They'll have blood on their hands and stuff like that. Should those people for that, they're elderly women, should those people go to jail for 20 years because they're protesting a congressional proceeding? given that it is, yeah, yes, yes.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (59:36)
Right.

Should they go to jail at all? Do we want people going

to jail? How many people go to jail for misdemeanors? We're actually kind of missing this point. Technically, you can sentence up to six months for a Class B or up to a year for a Class A. But by and large, how many people go to prison for misdemeanors, particularly if it's their first time? If they're really aggressive, kind of violent, and they're doing it over and over, maybe you have to throw them in jail to wake them up. But your first time misdemeanor?

especially if you're protesting and you're protected by the First Amendment, even if you technically break a rule, do we want them going to jail? I mean, come on guys, that's insane. No, the answer is no. Trust me, I went to jail. It's terrible. It is terrible.

It's so terrible, I don't even want most real criminals in jail. I want them rehabilitated in a more sensible way that actually restores the victim and gives dignity back to the offender so that they can correct their behavior. I spent some time in prison and I can tell you it's terrible. It is not helping anyone, including the criminals. But if you are a political protester, even if you technically break a rule or even a window, don't break a window. I don't want you to do that. It's not cool. It's against the law and it should be. But no one should be going to prison for...

Kevin Maley (1:00:51)
Yeah.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (1:00:57)
for breaking a window during a political protest.

Kevin Maley (1:00:59)
Right. So you're

you don't get the change of venue. You're tried. You're found guilty on all charges. And then what was your sentencing?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (1:01:08)
The sentencing happened in June of 2023. So between the trial and the sentencing were almost over six months. And I was very vocal doing media speeches, continuing to travel the country, doing my work as the creative director at the organization. But I was also speaking prominently on the fraud of J6, these constitutional violations, et cetera.

When I got to sentencing, my judge was so furious with me, particularly my criticism of the DC court system, which I, as I just explained to you, was not impartial. And he was furious. He literally acknowledged at sentencing that he was sentencing me more harshly because he was offended by my critique of the DC court system. So essentially he said, I'm throwing you in prison for years for the crime of criticizing the government, which is literally the textbook definition of fascism.

It's insane, but he said that from the bench. the abuse of the criminal justice system specifically and just the general weaponization of government has gotten to a point that is so dangerous and problematic that no matter who you voted for or what political party you claim or what your opinions are, you should be deeply concerned. And the January 6th event, it just...

It provides a moment for us to have a real gut check with ourselves as a nation as to what we really believe and what we're willing to do to protect those beliefs for everyone, including different sides of the political spectrum and how we reclaim some legitimacy, honesty and transparency with our government, with our institutions such that we can all trust in them together as a nation.

Kevin Maley (1:02:45)
Yeah, well said. And I know we're up on time, so appreciate, I feel like I could keep going on and on just so people know the felony.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (1:02:52)
Absolutely. I would be happy to

come back another time with you. I've really appreciated the discourse. It's been fantastic.

Kevin Maley (1:02:59)
Yeah, that would be great. so people know that the felony charges got overturned by the Supreme Court and then Donald Trump pardoned January six protesters. You had already served your jail time, but did you accept that pardon?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (1:03:11)
No, I didn't need to. actually beat all the charges. I beat the felony at the Supreme Court and then I beat the misdemeanors because the new DOJ vacated them knowing that I was innocent and I should never have been charged in the first place. So I actually was legally exonerated of all five charges, which is actually a miracle, but it was the right result.

Kevin Maley (1:03:14)
that's

And John, where can people find your book and find more information about your case?

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (1:03:33)
Absolutely,

Patriot Plee is the name of the book and you can pre-order that at johnstrand.com. So that's J-O-H-N-S-T-R-A-N-D, johnstrand.com. And of course you can find me on X and social media at John Strand USA.

Kevin Maley (1:03:47)
Great, we will put that in the show notes and John, thank you for coming on.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (1:03:50)
Amazing. Kevin, I really appreciate it. God bless you for your authenticity and for just the great civil discourse. And let's absolutely do it again. Thanks to your listeners for considering my story and the other side of what happened to J6ers. It's important. And let's continue to pursue liberty and justice for all, for everyone. Amazing. All right, thank you so much.

Kevin Maley (1:04:06)
Sounds good, take care.