Pamela Hemphill, a grandmother in her seventies who was jailed for taking part in the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol four years ago, has said she will “refuse” a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump once he takes office.
The incoming commander-in-chief has vowed to issue widespread presidential pardons to his supporters convicted for nonviolent offences over the infamous attack on January 6 2021.
Members of the “Stop the Steal” movement, wrongly believing Joe Biden’s victory over Trump the previous November had been secured by fraud, sought to prevent the formal certification of the election results that day by storming the Capitol, brawling with police officers, smashing windows and forcing their way inside, leaving lawmakers and their aides fleeing for their lives before order could be restored.
But Hemphill – who filmed her actions, posted the footage on Facebook and became known as the “MAGA Granny”, only to later break with Trump’s movement – has said she wants no part of the 47th president’s clemency outreach.
“I’m not going to be bullied by MAGA anymore, as those who went as far as calling my Probation Officer trying to get me in trouble backfired on them, thinking I would stop speaking out, just give me more confidence to continue!” she wrote on X on Sunday.
“I will refuse a pardon from felon Trump!”
Hemphill was responding to a post by former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, who served on the bipartisan House committee that investigated the riot and has likewise said he would reject a presidential pardon from Biden to shield him from retaliatory measures by Trump’s FBI or Justice Department.
A retired substance abuse counsellor from Boise, Idaho, who was being treated for breast cancer at the time of the riot, Hemphill was spotted pushing past police lines three times when the attack was underway and was later seen inside its rotunda telling fellow members of the mob: “Come on in, come on, have fun… This is your house!”
Pamela Hemphill interviewed by Abby Philip by CNN in January 2024 (CNN/YouTube)
Eight months later, FBI agents arrived at her front door.
She ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of demonstrating, picketing or parading in a Capitol building in federal court in 2022 and apologized for “everything I said and did at the Capitol”.
Hemphill was sentenced to two months behind bars, six months of probation and $500 restitution, serving 60 days in Dublin, California.
She then returned to prominence in June 2023 when Trump himself posted about her case on Truth Social, declaring that it was “HORRIBLE” that she had spent more time in jail than Hunter Biden, his successor’s son, whom House Republicans have tirelessly persecuted over seemingly baseless accusations of corruption and influence-peddling overseas.
Hemphill responded to the former president’s post on X by saying: “Please Donald Trump don’t be using me for anything, I’m not a victim of Jan6, I pleaded guilty because I was guilty! #StopTheSpin.”
Subsequently interviewed by The Daily Beast, Hemphill revealed that she had definitively broken with “the Trump cult” three months earlier.
“You don’t see it as a cult when you’re in it,” she reflected.
“You don’t recognize it.”
After her release, she explained, family members had staged a political intervention, talking to her just as she had once spoken to recovering addicts and telling her: “Pam, you’re in a cult. You really need to get out of that… We really care about you, but this is a cult. You’re trapped in a cult.”
Hemphill then drastically revised her opinion of Trump: “I started seeing the narcissistic behavior. And I said, ‘Wait, wait, this is gaslighting. This is not true.’
“I never liked how he talked to people anyway. He’s rude. He’s very mean to people.”
Pamela Hemphill being led away from the US Capitol following the riot on January 6 2021 (Department of Justice)
She became particularly incensed when MAGA representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene began attempting to portray her as a martyr for their own political ends.
“What’s happened is they’re using me like a victim,” she said.
“I’m not a victim. I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, period. I mean, I was trespassing. I had a choice – I could have left.”
Hemphill thereafter became an outspoken opponent of Trump, taking her argument to CNN and telling USA Today last summer that the Republican was an aspiring dictator and that she would be voting for Kamala Harris instead.
“It’s like a scar that I have to carry for the rest of my life… It’s gonna be that shame(ful) feeling,” she said of her experiences with Trumpism, also revealing that she had received death threats since breaking with MAGA.
“It’s not like I knew I was breaking the law, and I broke it anyway.
“However, I still was a part of that craziness, that cult. So it’s like something I can’t brush off.”