While many of the pardoned Jan. 6 defendants are quietly rebuilding their lives after four years of prosecutions and scrutiny, a few are jumping back into the political fray with high ambitions.
At least two are campaigning to hold office in the U.S. Capitol, the site of a protest that turned violent on Jan. 6, 2021, leading to criminal charges against nearly 1,600 participants, a fraction of whom were charged with violent offenses.
They were part of a massive rally for President Donald Trump as he disputed his 2020 election loss; Trump granted clemency to all defendants this year after voters returned him to office.
So far, two men have declared candidacy for the U.S. Senate: Derrick Evans of West Virginia and Jacob Lang, a New York-to-Florida transplant who goes by “Jake.” And several other former Jan. 6 defendants told The Epoch Times they may also be announcing congressional runs.
Although Evans unsuccessfully ran for a House seat last year, he remains undeterred from aiming higher.
“We need American patriots who are willing to step up and make some sacrifices to preserve individual freedom and liberty for our children and future grandchildren,” the married father of four told The Epoch Times. “And I don’t trust the politicians in [Washington] D.C. to do that. But I do trust myself and my fellow January 6th political prisoners to obviously go and advocate for smaller government.”
Lang, 30, was imprisoned without a trial for four years and six days. His incarceration persisted largely because his own lawyers requested trial delays. But Lang told The Epoch Times he agreed to postponements “to possibly have a better chance at justice.” He and other Jan. 6 defendants say they had trouble accessing video footage that could exonerate them or mitigate their guilt.
Philip Anderson of Texas told The Epoch Times he credits Lang with saving his life. Lang pulled Anderson out of a pile of collapsed protesters after seeing police beat an unconscious woman, 34-year-old Roseanne Boyland, who died. Her cause of death remains in dispute.
Federal prosecutors accused protesters of plotting to breach the Capitol and stop certification of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s win. Some citizens suspect that federal agents conspired to provoke violence and use the justice system against demonstrators—and against Trump, who was then the Republican incumbent.
Criminal charges against Trump, including some holding him responsible for Jan. 6 violence, fell apart after he won court challenges and the 2024 election. On Jan. 20, his first day in office as the 47th president, he signed the pardons along with an executive order “ending the weaponization of the federal government.”
Many questions are still swirling around Jan. 6 and its aftermath; Republican lawmakers have vowed to continue investigations while Democrats remain critical of the president and his supporters.Lang said he is motivated to “right the wrongs” perpetrated by “the weaponized Department of Justice and, obviously, the entire federal government.”
He is also an advocate for parental rights, correcting the insurance-affordability crisis for Floridians, and “100 percent allegiance to President Trump’s agenda.”
Lang said many people have called upon him and other former Jan. 6 prisoners to become “America’s next generation of leaders.”
“We’ve been forged in the fire of persecution,” he said. “You know, our character and our love for our country have been tested.”
Zink, who ran for Congress last year and was defeated in the Republican primary, said he is working with a team to chart his political future, which could lead to another congressional bid.
Many other Jan. 6 participants and their supporters are politically active in less-obvious ways.
“There is a network of people that do research. There is a network of people who are working behind the scenes, very quiet, listening in town hall meetings all across America,” Zink said.
“I think that there’s going to be ... a very big unseating of a lot of people in the days to come.”
