‘Christmas Miracle’: Patrick Byrne Offers $500,000 to Jan. 6 Legal Fund, Organizer Says

Patrick Byrne in Washington on Dec. 15, 2020. Samira Baoaou/The Epoch Times

In an act of unexpected generosity, Patrick Byrne has offered to make a matching contribution of $500,000 for the legal defense and support of Jan. 6 prisoners and their families.

Mr. Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock, has been a longtime outspoken advocate for Jan. 6 prisoners.

“There’s a lot of prisoners,” he told The Epoch Times. “There’s a lot of evil to correct.”

Mr. Byrne issued a challenge to ask people to donate to the J6 Legal Fund, started by Jan. 6 prisoner Edward Jacob “Jake” Lang, to provide funding to hire conservative private attorneys to represent Jan. 6 defendants.

“We’re putting $500,000 in if Jake can raise $500,000 by Christmas night,” Mr. Byrne added.

Of the $500,000 Mr. Byrne plans to donate, he said half would go to the J6 Legal Fund and the other half would go to Stand in the Gap, another fund to support Jan. 6 prisoners and their families.

As of the afternoon of Dec. 21, the fundraising page for the J6 Legal Fund showed over $380,000 had been raised, leaving about $120,000 to go.

Expensive Legal Fees

Mr. Lang told The Epoch Times that most Jan. 6 prisoners have been “fleeced by their attorneys,” with legal fees of $80,000 to $120,000, clearing out their life savings and bankrupting their families.

“When the J6 Legal Fund steps in, they negotiate with a number of different attorneys to represent Jan. 6 defendants for $20,000 and $25,000,” he said. “After getting that offer from Patrick, I was flabbergasted. I was floored. The perfect words are that it’s a Christmas miracle.”

Mr. Byrne first announced his surprise $500,000 challenge on Dec. 12 when he was a guest on Mr. Lang’s “Political Prisoner Podcast,” which Mr. Lang records from his jail cell in Washington and releases with production support from Gateway Pundit.

At that time, the legal fund was about $230,000 short of the $500,000 target. Mr. Byrne said he would donate another $500,000 if the community donated enough to get the fund to $500,000.

“This was an incredible moment for the Jan. 6 community,” Mr. Lang told The Epoch Times, saying Mr. Byrne’s pledge is “a breakthrough” that could provide all of his “fellow patriots strong lawyers to fight their appeals and cases.”

“We only have four days left,” he said. “It’s the single largest donation anyone has offered to J6ers. It’s huge.”

Jan. 6 prisoners are being held in the Central Detention Facility and the Central Treatment Facility in Washington, both of which are under the District of Columbia Department of Corrections.

Jan. 6 prisoners and witnesses have described conditions in which the prisoners are verbally and physically assaulted by guards, denied basic or necessary medical treatment, and given food unfit for human consumption.

A 2021 congressional report from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) detailed the inhumane conditions she witnessed after visiting both facilities.

“Cells in the January 6 wing of the [Central Treatment Facility] were extremely small, composed of a single toilet, sink, and a small bed cot,” the report said. “The walls of the rooms had residue of human feces, bodily fluids, blood, dirt, and mold.”

One Jan. 6 prisoner who has been incarcerated for over two years without a trial had his Veterans Administration benefits canceled and was advised he may have to repay some of the funds he had already received.

The government has even tried to confiscate the money people have donated to crowdfunding accounts to help cover legal fees for the Jan. 6 prisoners and living expenses for their families while they’re incarcerated.

Fighting the Government’s ‘Unlimited Resources’

During his own time as a pretrial detainee at the Central Detention Facility in Washington, Mr. Lang has suffered mental and physical abuse and has been subjected to numerous stays in solitary confinement.

Reports of abuse at the hands of the guards have been so prolific that it prompted then-Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) to demand a welfare check on the prisoners.

“Having access to these funds will open many doors for us,” Mr. Lang said. “We can handle civil suits, appellate work, hire expert witnesses, and work on getting venue changes. It really strengthens our arsenal so we can combat the persecution and weaponization of the DOJ against us.

“The government has unlimited resources. The U.S. Attorney’s office, the DOJ, the FBI all work in concert to arrest thousands of Jan-6ers. Most of us are just prisoners locked in solitary confinement cells. It’s like a David and Goliath scenario. The Jan6 Legal Fund is like a virtual network of lawyers collaborating for the benefit of Jan-6ers.”

Mr. Byrne said the treatment of Jan. 6 prisoners and defendants “will last forever to the shame of the Department of Justice.”

“It’s been three years that some of these people have been sitting in solitary and we’ve got to do something,” he said.

Mr. Lang said he felt extreme gratitude to Mr. Byrne, and that the timing of the donation coincided perfectly with the news that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the use of a criminal statute for obstruction of an “official proceeding,” one of the most serious charges levied against hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants and former President Donald Trump.

The charge carries a possible 20-year prison sentence.

“It was a huge double-whammy,” Mr. Lang recalled. “It just seems like God is opening up doors for us in the Jan. 6 community to have more victories than we’ve had in the past three years. It’s given us a lot of hope and brought back to life a community that’s been starving for justice.”