Guy Reffitt Released! Pardoned January 6 Hostage Guy Reffitt Tells His Story Including the FBI Setup After 4 Years

by | Feb 16, 2025 | Aggregate | 0 comments

Guy Reffitt Released! Pardoned January 6 Hostage Guy Reffitt Tells His Story Including the FBI Setup After 4 Years
February 16, 2025

Guy Reffitt’s cell in the DC Gulag

There are many stories about January 6 that fall by the wayside. Some January 6 defendants got extensive media coverage, especially in the immediate aftermath of January 6, but this is not representative of the overall body.

Most defendants have remained nameless, faceless hostages. Real Americans have been rendered as caricatures as a way of pigeonholing them and glossing over the real experiences of that complicated day.

LANDMAN OILMAN

Guy Reffitt was recently pardoned for January 6 after spending four years in jail and prison. Guy’s story is especially egregious compared to many others caught up in the political inquisition that followed the events of January 6.

Guy Reffitt, an oil worker for over two decades and aspiring security contractor, would be framed as an extremist who led a mob of insurrectionists to the US Capitol. The truth tells a different story than either the Department of Justice or the mainstream media told.

** Please donate to the Reffitt family recovery fund here.

THE SET UP

After January 6, Guy’s son Jackson Reffitt turned his father in and recorded him for the FBI. More concerning than turning his father in for January 6 is the fact that Jackson Reffitt was in fact communicating with the feds a month before January 6, raising the question of whether Guy was being watched and entrapped. In our discussions, Guy has claimed Jackson was groomed for a role and was motivated by a communist ideology, putting further into doubt the narratives built by federal prosecutors.

Jackson Reffitt would tell authorities he feared his father retaliating against him, claiming he was threatened not to snitch on him. This accusation would against Guy would be used, possibly more than any other false narrative, to deprive him of his freedom for years to come. But Jackson wasn’t the only individual to turn on Guy…

January 6 defendant (left) and informant Rocky Hardy (right) the day before January 6

On top of Guy’s son informing on him, an acquaintance of Guy’s – Rocky Hardy – was offered immunity to testify against Guy at his trial in 2022. Rocky accompanied Guy to the Capitol on January 6 and, according to Guy in our recent interview, repeatedly used incendiary language in chat groups and would lure Guy out to isolated locations for equally incendiary conversations.

“And I kept telling him like, ‘Rocky, bro, you need to stop talking like that, bro.’ … He wanted to meet me at a park [and it] was literally just him trying to gaslight me into saying stuff about Nancy Pelosi and shit like that.” – Guy Reffitt on incendiary behavior of Rocky Hardy

It seems highly probable then that Hardy was working before January 6 to entrap Guy, especially when Guy would in fact largely be prosecuted and convicted for jokes and innuendo taken out of context rather than actual violent or destructive behavior at the Capitol.

Rocky verifiably lied on the stand at Guy’s trial. He at one point claimed that he and Guy only had radios to communicate with eachother, yet Guy’s bodycamera from the day shows Hardy in the Ellipse crowd behind Guy whispering into a radio as Guy is distracted by a conversation with strangers.

Upon searching Reffitt’s residence, the feds even staged photos of Guy’s firearms, ammunition, and protective gear in order to portray Guy as actively plotting armed conflict. This was a blatant attempt to frame a narrative about Guy as an unhinged militant and then deny him bail.

The US Marshals would bounce Guy around the country, “diesel therapy” as it’s called, until arriving to the jail in Washington, DC. I would eventually meet Guy Reffitt in the DC jail (the “Gulag”) in early 2021 where we’d spend months on end in solitary confinement, psychologically abused by guards, denied basic civil rights, and refused access to evidence.

Further, the DOJ had an informant following Guy Reffitt from jail to jail, Troy Smocks. A career criminal, Smocks would pose as a US Army Colonel to gain the trust of January 6 defendants and collect information on their cases, notably Guy Reffitt and the Oath Keepers. I frequently caught Smocks spying on Guy, following him in the jail, even watching Guy from the phones. Guy confirmed at the time of his trial that Smocks in fact volunteered to testify against him.

TIP OF THE SPEAR

Those who paid attention to January 6 prosecutions may have noticed the tendency to accuse every single January 6 defendant of being responsible for the entire riot. In particular, accusations that a defendant was “the spearhead” or the “tip of the spear” of the so-called insurrection. For standing atop the Northwest scaffolding, Guy was labeled by prosecutors as the “tip of the mob’s spear” on January 6. It’s hard to keep count of how many January 6 defendants have been given this useless label by judges and prosecutors.

Prosecutors called Michael Sparks the “tip of the spear”. And called Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs the “tip of the spear”. Judge Timothy Kelly also called Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola the “tip of the spear”. And Proud Boys informant Jeremy Bertino called the entire Proud Boys organization the “tip of the spear“. Federal informant Samuel Lazar even claimed to have been the “tip of the spear”.

If everyone was the tip of the spear, nobody was. But in fact, the idea that Guy was more responsible than others for people pushing towards the Capitol building is a blatant lie because Guy was NOT the first person to climb to the top of the Northwest scaffold that day. The DOJ’s own timeline confirms other people were there before Guy, arrested, and nobody talks about it (see below).

DUE PROCESS DENIED

Guy was convicted at trial by a biased jury and denied relief by a biased judge. Further, after his trial, the DOJ dumped thousands of hours of video onto Evidence.com proving that evidence was being held back from defendants. Countless defendants – from the inmates of the DC Gulag to others detained in jails or prisons across America to others defendants out on bail – would weigh going to trial or taking a plea deal.

In the case of Guy this proved more than being denied access to general video. The exculpatory video was found quietly dumped by prosecutors showing that, upon zooming in, Guy Reffitt was not the first individual to climb the Northwest scaffolding as alleged. The “tip of the spear”, as Guy was called, in fact appeared later than several individuals detained at the top of the scaffolding and staircase, even according to the government’s own official timeline released in global discovery productions.

Guy was framed for a narrative while nobody seems to care who the first people at the top of the stairs were. Too late to be used at trial, this evidence was mentioned at Guy’s sentencing, though the judge failed to consider this blatant Brady violation.

ARMED AND UNDANGEROUS

Long after his arrest, the government would produce what it alleged to be a photo of Guy having a firearm at the Capitol. The photo was in fact a still frame image taken from a cell phone video and then “enhanced” to show a holster under Guy’s coat. The government effectively forged evidence of Guy’s possession of a firearm to compensate for the fact that even if a holster was on Guy’s person he never once brandished a firearm on January 6. On the contrary, it was Capitol Police who shot at Guy for protesting, firing not just chemical irritants to blind him but also ceramic rounds which seriously bruised his torso.

Guy was shot with ceramic rounds

If Guy had a firearm, he certainly didn’t return fire when being injured by Capitol Police, indicating far more restraint and far less danger than prosecutors later alleged. In fact, Guy was so injured that he could barely use the stairs after being shot, as shown by CCTV. He was never a threat to the Capitol, or to those in it, nor did he even enter it.

The narrative of Reffitt having a gun is beyond strange considering how the government treated other defendants shown to have guns at the Capitol. John Banuelos wasn’t picked up by the feds for three years after shooting a gun in the air above Capitol scaffolding despite having been known to law enforcement since 2021 over a stabbing death in Utah.

Jerod Thomas Bargar was even given probation after dropping a loaded gun in its holster on the West Terrace. If January 6 was an insurrection, and an armed insurrection at that, why has the government been so inconsistent in its quest to punish January 6 defendants with firearms?

FAMILY MATTERS

It’ll work itself out in time. – Guy Reffitt on resolving issues with his son

After turning informant on his father, Jackson Reffitt asked the court to max out Guy’s sentence. Jackson would tour the leftist media circuit, fundraised off deceiving his father, and even became the basis of a broadway play, Fatherland. Jackson would later claim, upon Guy’s release from custody, that he bought a gun to protect himself from his father. But has Jackson’s schtick been an act?

According to Guy, his son in fact gave several interviews early on claiming he did not in fact feel in danger around his father after January 6. Guy also confirmed that his trial lawyer was provided this information yet failed to address it and thus failed to disprove Guy threatened a witness.

Those who know Guy intimately know he’s not the lunatic that he’s been framed as. On the contrary, Guy’s daughter made clear she did not feel endangered by her father. Guy was never a threat to witnesses, especially not his own flesh and blood. Upon studying Guy’s body camera footage from January 6, I caught a special moment when Guy referred to his wife as his “Abigail Adams”.

The significance of this is obvious to those who love early American history and know the deep love President John Adams had for the First Lady, Abigail Adams. How appropriate considering the large part Nicole Reffitt has played in not just the life of the Reffitt family but other January 6 hostages kept inside the DC Gulag.

Nicole would co-run the “Freedom Corner” protest/vigil outside the DC Gulag alongside Ashli Babbitt’s mother Micki Witthoeft. It is improbable that a man claimed to be so dangerous to his family would elicit so much loyalty from that very family. And as for Guy’s son, he has made it very clear that he still loves Jackson and awaits the day they reconcile, as any father would.

VICTORY IN DEFEAT

All the same, the government got its man. Through a combination of lies, suppressed exculpatory evidence, and innuendo, Guy was convicted by a biased DC jury and in record time. Guy recalls that the jurors quipped about staying in deliberation just long enough to get lunch because the sandwiches were “to die for”. Guy Reffitt became the first January 6 defendant to be convicted at trial instead of by plea deal, a harsh blow not just to the Reffitt family but all defendants seeking to put the government to its evidentiary burden.

Guy’s character is that of a man who, even at the lowest point of life, dedicated hours upon hours reviewing video to assist other defendants in building their defense. No matter how hard the DOJ tried to hide exculpatory evidence, Guy Reffitt dug and dug until he found what others needed. The hunted became the hunter, and altrusim was on full display whenever Guy had access to video evidence being hidden from the public. Guy has the character of a man who can lose everything, even his own freedom, and continue fighting on for the sake of others.

And Nicole Reffitt stood firmly by her husband after his wrongful conviction, encouraging other defendants and families to fight on in spite of the results of his trial:

Do not take a plea- they want us to take a plea … The reason that we have all guilty verdicts is that they are making a point of Guy and that is to intimidate all the other 1/6ers. And we will all fight together. Guy was used as an example today to make all the January 6ers take pleas- do not take pleas 1/6ers we got this! – Nicole Reffitt

** Please donate to the Reffitt family recovery fund here.

The trauma induced by the government didn’t end with a facade of a trial nor with Guy being oversentenced to over 6 years. When the infamous 18 USC 1512 Obstruction charge was overturned by SCOTUS in June of 2024, Guy’s sentence should’ve been recalculated to time served. Judge Dabney Friedrich, refusing to show the slightest humility or humanity, resentenced Guy with an upward departure instead of releasing him on time served in time for Christmas. (Curiously, Friedrich’s husband was on the Enron task force which ultimately led to the creation of the 1512 subsection used against January 6 defendants.) Friedrich’s failure to show mercy backfired, however.

Fortunately, upon President Donald Trump retaking the White House, Guy was pardoned and reunited with his family after four years of grinding captivity. He was also reunited with those of us who languished behind bars alongside him in the DC Gulag. I had the privilege of speaking with Guy again after over two years apart. In an interview over three hours long, we discussed the many ways in which the government lied about him, sabotaged his case, and deprived him of his constitutional rights. You can listen to Guy tell his story after four years here:

Now that the January 6 defendants are no longer subject to probation or supervised release, we can speak freely with each other. The patriots who languished behind bars in the DC Gulag have been hastily reconnecting. With each day, more and more sign on to tell their story. What really happened on January 6, how they were smeared by the feds and media, and what they suffered through while locked up, and much more.

These interviews, along with hundreds of pages of primary documents, will form the basis for a multi-volume history series, Artifice and Betrayal: The History of the DC Gulag. Now that their voices have been restored, the defendants will be the ones to write the authoritative history of January 6 and the lawfare that followed, not the prosecutors and media.

Guy Reffitt holding evidence tablet (left) with Tim Hale (right) inside DC Gulag

I’m so grateful to have my friend from the Gulag out of captivity and back with his family. But there is still work to be done and wounds in need of healing. There are still hurdles ahead. Financial concerns, family health issues, and unfortunately federal prosecutors even manufactured another weapons case against Guy after raiding the Reffitt household (a blatant example of malicious and vindictive prosecution).

The Reffitt family is as whole as it’s been in four years, but they still face burdens going forward. If you are inclined to match the generosity of the Reffitts, who stood by myself and many others in captivity, please consider contributing to their recovery fund HERE so Guy and Nicole can finally have a sense of security and a return to normalcy.

The post Guy Reffitt Released! Pardoned January 6 Hostage Guy Reffitt Tells His Story Including the FBI Setup After 4 Years appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Author: Tim Hale

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