Pamela Hemphill — a self-described “ex-MAGA Granny” who was convicted for her position within the lethal Jan. 6, 2021 attack — 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 discuss of a “weaponization” of the Justice Department, 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 taking part within the riot. She’s certainly 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 have been hundreds of rioters convicted of assaulting officers, roughly 1,000 nonviolent offenders and round 200 folks accused of assaulting police. Their instances are pending. Numerous these pardoned have since been rearrested.
Hemphill has distanced herself from her unofficial “MAGA” moniker and hit again at Trump in 2023 for “using” her cancer battle in a Truth 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 realize, it’d be a slap [to] the Capitol law enforcement officials, the rule of regulation,” she stated. “No, I couldn’t dare reside with myself taking a pardon. I wouldn’t have the ability to sleep at evening.”
Hemphill — when requested how she’s “completed a 180” for the reason that rebellion — 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 a number of claims she later discovered to be false.
“I believed, ‘, 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 by means of main cult skilled Steven Hassan’s 2019 book on Trump that she was in a cult.
Hemphill careworn that there was “nothing I might lose” by being trustworthy and pushing again towards Trump.
“It doesn’t matter. The price of persevering with to lie or be dishonest with your self, it’s not price it. It’s not price — something they need to do to me, it’s OK. I’m not frightened about nothing,” she stated.
