The January 6 rioters who received pardons from Donald Trump have a message for the new president.
"I'm thankful for promises that were made, promises that were kept," Isabella Maria DeLuca, a 24-year-old social media influencer charged in the Capitol attack, told Newsweek on Tuesday. "When so many Republicans were turning their back on J6ers, he wasn't."
Hours after taking office on Monday, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 of his supporters who were charged in connection to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, and commuted the remaining 14 prison sentences. The move, which went beyond the scope many were expecting, was a major blow to the sweeping federal prosecution that began more than four years ago when thousands of people stormed to the Capitol in an effort to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Flexing his clemency powers, Trump sought to rewrite that narrative on his first day back at the White House, casting the rioters as "patriots" and "hostages" who were unfairly prosecuted by a politically-motivated Justice Department.
DeLuca, who was facing misdemeanor charges, including theft of government property, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area, told Newsweek she was out for dinner with her sister and friends when she received a message from her lawyer that all of his January 6 clients had received full pardons from Trump.
"My immediate reaction was just shock and relief and happy tears," Deluca said. "To have the weight of the government and all its resources on you as a 24-year-old who's just getting their life started, it weighs heavily on you. And so, this has been a huge relief. I feel vindicated. I feel like I have my life back."
Taylor James Johnatakis was serving out his 87-month sentence at a federal prison in Springfield, Missouri when the news came down.
"I feel relieved," Johnatakis told Newsweek on Tuesday. "I feel very grateful to President Trump for making good on his word. There's some people who didn't think he would keep his word, but we never doubted he would. I'm very glad he did what he did; we couldn't be more grateful to him."
Federal prosecutors said Johnatakis marched alongside the pro-Trump mob to the Capitol, and that once he made it to the west side of the building he used a megaphone to encourage fellow rioters to overpower a police line. He then organized and coordinated other rioters to assault police officers at the top of a staircase, court documents show.
"Johnatakis was not just any rioter: he led, organized, and encouraged the assault of officers at the U.S. Capitol on January 6," prosecutors said.
Johnatakis, who was arrested in Washington state by the FBI in February 2021, was convicted in April of three felonies and four misdemeanor charges, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. He was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution. He had served 14 months of his setence at the time his pardon was issued.
"To say I assaulted [the police officers] does disservice to the word assault," Johnatakis said Tuesday. "The case is what the case is, but I've been pardoned."
Upon his release from MCFP Springfield, Johnatakis and his wife Marie stopped at Walmart to get new clothes and grab lunch at a diner before returning home to their family in Kingston, Washington. The father of five said he "told everybody from the checkout person to the waiter at the diner to the person at the gas station: 'I just out of federal prison, I'm a January 6th defendant, and I just got pardoned.'"
"Not one single person hasn't been supportive of us," he said.
Although Johnatakis had anticipated that Trump would move quickly to pardon those charged in connection to the Capitol riot, there were moments when he was unsure if he would ever get out early.
"As soon as Donald Trump got elected, everybody knew that we were getting out," he recalled. "I mean, guards were giving us high fives, other inmates were like, 'You guys are getting out, don't worry.' We were way more nervous about just how dirty politics is and worried that we would continue to be fodder for the nature of politics."
Johnatakis wasn't the only one who had doubts.
"With something as big as a federal case against you, there's always kind of this little voice in the back of your head that's like, 'Well, what if he isn't pardoning everybody?' DeLuca said. "Getting the news that I received a full pardon, I just basically had tears of joy because I wasn't expecting it so soon."
DeLuca, who had not been convicted at the time her pardon was issued, acknowledged that there were defendants who had it "way worse," having been in jails for years. She said she also suffered from the events of that day.
"I did lose my job. I did come into financial trouble because of this. I had a really great job lined up that was basically taken from me because of the case. I was humiliated. My family was humiliated. I was labeled by a thief by my own government, a domestic terrorist. And so it was very difficult, and it feels nice to not have any of that weighing on me."
The Setauket, New York native, who has more than 469,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, previously interned for former Representative Lee Zeldin and Representative Paul Gosar, both Republican allies of Trump. Zeldin is expected to be confirmed as Trump's next Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
Asked if she would have gone to the Capitol that day knowing what would have transpired, the 24-year-old influencer said, "Probably not."
DeLuca is looking forward to rebuilding her life, both professionally and personally, but Johnatakis expressed a more dreary outlook on what lies ahead. A septic systems installer before he went to prison, Johnatakis said he was uncertain if his career was still waiting for him at home.
"To my knowledge, that's gone," he said. "This destroys your life. We had to sell basically every asset we own just for my five kids to survive. We tried to sell the house, unfortunately the house never sold. I guess fortunately now, because at least I have a home to go back to — it's about the only thing left."
Johnatakis said he had to sell his work equipment and truck while imprisoned and needs to reassess his next move.
"My licenses have all lapsed, so am I going to go back to septic? I have no idea," he said. "I have no idea what's waiting for me going home other than my family, which is the most important thing."
But not all the defendants who received pardons from Trump had the same message. Pam Hemphill, who was also known as "MAGA granny," told Newsweek she wouldn't be accepting the pardon.
"Taking a pardon would be taking a part of what January 6 has been trying to do, which is rewrite history. [To say] that [the Capitol riot] was a peaceful protest and the DOJ was weaponized against them. And I'm not going to play a part of that," Hemphill said Tuesday. "I pleaded guilty because I was guilty."
She said those disputing the prosecutions are "lying" and "grifting."
"The courts have a sentencing guideline. Some [defendants] have even gotten lesser sentences than the prosecutors recommended. Some got what they were recommended, but it's all been under the law," she said. "It's been very professionally done, legally done, but they're not telling you that story. They're going to tell you the total of it all lies, every single one of them."
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