'Trump deserves prison': MAGA rioter rejects his pardon from president
The man who was convicted after being seen on camera "chugging wine" while storming the Capitol on January 6 received a pardon, just like roughly 1,500 others President Donald Trump gave clemency on his first day in office. But he doesn't want the pardon, reported Law & Crime — and he's working with his U.S. senator to formally get it rescinded.
Jason Riddle, a Navy veteran from New Hampshire who ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican in 2024, pleaded guilty to unlawful picketing and to stealing a wine bottle from the Capitol. He already served a 90-day jail sentence and was on probation at the time he was granted the pardon.
Speaking to WMUR, he expressed remorse for his actions and said since that day, he has kicked his alcohol addiction.
He abandoned the MAGA movement in 2023, when President Donald Trump called on his supporters to gather in New York to protest his criminal trial for falsifying business records — where he was ultimately convicted.
"I thought, 'How could he do that? There could be another riot, there could be another Ashli Babbitt. Someone else might get killed, how could you do this?'" he wrote on the Leaving MAGA blog at the time. "Then it hit me. I said to myself, 'Trump doesn't know you, and the fact that you're even thinking about his feelings proves you have an unhealthy obsession. And you're an idiot for even believing he cares.'"
Riddle is not the only January 6 rioter who has since condemned their own actions and Trump's efforts to expunge their criminal convictions. Pamela Hemphill, a woman from Idaho nicknamed "MAGA Granny" who turned on Trump and even campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, also refused a pardon, calling it an "insult" to the Capitol Police who defended lawmakers as they certified the election.
A number of other pardoned January 6 rioters have not been so remorseful, and found themselves in trouble with the law again. 36-year-old Edward Kelley was caught plotting to murder FBI agents and Tennessee state officials who helped investigate his actions at the Capitol, and earlier this month was sentenced to life in prison. And earlier this year, another man, Edward Huttle, was shot dead by Indiana sheriff's deputies while allegedly resisting arrest in a traffic stop.
"This was a horrible thing that happened, and I deserve to go to prison, and so does Donald Trump," Riddle said, according to the report. "He still deserves to go to prison for having caused that. I think maybe one day he will."