Pamela Hemphill — a self-described “ex-MAGA Granny” who was convicted for her position within the lethal Jan. 6, 2021 assault — stated Tuesday that she declined President Donald Trump’s pardon as a result of she didn’t need to be a part of his “narrative.”
Hemphill — in an interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown — pointed to Trump’s speak of a “weaponization” of the Justice Division, including that different convicted rioters have since tagged alongside and claimed they weren’t allowed due course of.
“And it’s all a lie,” stated Hemphill, who spent two months in a federal jail and stays on probation for collaborating within the riot. She’s considered one of 1,500 folks the president pardoned on his first day in workplace for his or her roles within the assault.
Amongst those that acquired pardons had been a whole lot of rioters convicted of assaulting officers, roughly 1,000 nonviolent offenders and round 200 folks accused of assaulting police. Their circumstances are pending. Plenty of these pardoned have since been rearrested.
Hemphill has distanced herself from her unofficial “MAGA” moniker and hit again at Trump in 2023 for “utilizing” her most cancers battle in a Reality Social put up.
On Tuesday, she emphasised that she had due course of and was finally “responsible” of her crimes.
“I’m not going to be part of Trump’s mendacity narrative and plus, you already know, it’d be a slap [to] the Capitol law enforcement officials, the rule of regulation,” she stated. “No, I couldn’t dare stay with myself taking a pardon. I wouldn’t be capable to sleep at night time.”
Hemphill — when requested how she’s “completed a 180” for the reason that revolt — stated she seen social media customers in a Jan. 6 group on X, previously Twitter, “taking part in the sufferer position” and felt like folks had “gaslighted” her utilizing disinformation.
“So, I simply found one lie after one other and I believed ‘this narrative is fake,’” stated Hemphill, noting that she began a separate J6 “gaslighting” group the place she uncovered plenty of claims she later realized to be false.
“I believed, ‘You realize, that is insane. I’m completed. I’m completed with these folks. And I’m going to do my very own analysis.’”
She stated she “didn’t understand a president might ever turn into a cult chief” and realized via main cult knowledgeable Steven Hassan’s 2019 e book on Trump that she was in a cult.
Hemphill harassed that there was “nothing I might lose” by being sincere and pushing again in opposition to Trump.
“It doesn’t matter. The price of persevering with to lie or be dishonest with your self, it’s not value it. It’s not value — something they need to do to me, it’s OK. I’m not fearful about nothing,” she stated.