Reformed 1/6 ‘MAGA I’M OUT OF YOUR ‘CULT,’ DONALD
A self-proclaimed “ex-MAGA Granny” convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot told former President Donald Trump not to use her case for political points, tweeting: “I pleaded guilty because I was guilty!”
Pam Hemphill, of Idaho, clapped back at the 77-year-old Trump after he shared a post on Truth Social that read: “AMERICAN JUSTICE: 69year-old Grandma with Cancer given more prison time for walking inside US Capitol than Hunter Biden for sharing classified documents with foreign regimes and multi-million dollar bribery schemes.”
“HORRIBLE!” Trump commented on the post, which was referring to Hemphill.
Hemphill responded on Twitter Monday, writing: “Please @realDonaldTrump don’t be using me for anything, I’m not a victim of Jan6, I pleaded guilty because I was guilty! #StopTheSpin.”
Hemphill, now 70, was arrested on Aug. 3, 2021, and pleaded guilty the following January to a single count of unlawful parading, demonstrating or picketing at the Capitol. She was sentenced on May 24, 2022, to 60 days in jail and three years of probation. She was also ordered to pay $500 in restitution.
On the day of the riot, authorities said, Hemphill encouraged others to pass through barriers in front of the Capitol while rioters pushed against them, telling her cohorts: “You just gotta come in . . . It’s your house. Come on in.”
According to prosecutors, Hemphill only left the Capitol after other Trump supporters said he had tweeted they should go home.
“When Trump says something, I listen,” Hemphill stated at the time. “Don’t worry. He’s gonna stay president. There’s nothing to worry about. [Vice President Mike] Pence’s got his back.”
Hemphill’s Twitter bio describes her as a “J6 Defendant” who is “Helping provide ‘Facts vs J6 Gaslighting.’ ” She told The Daily Beast that she was a full-fledged supporter of what she now calls “the Trump cult” until earlier this year.
Hemphill served her 60 days at the federal prison in Dublin, Calif. When she got home, family members tried to help her.
“[They were] telling me, ‘Pam, you’re in a cult. You really need to get out of that . . . We really care about you, but this is a cult. You’re trapped in a cult,’ ” she recounted.
Hemphill said she was willing to listen, since she had her own quibbles with the former president.
“I never liked how he talked to people anyway,” she said. “He’s rude. He’s very mean to people.”
Meanwhile, other participants in the riot were communicating with her about “victimness, gaslighting.”
“I started hearing all their lies, their stories. I said, ‘Wait, it doesn’t look like [the police] started anything.’ ”
Finally, Hemphill said, she made her break with Trumpism in April.
“I said, ‘This is it. Pam, this is a cult. Just face it. Back away 100%,’ ” she told The Daily Beast.
Part of that process was pushing back on the pro-Trump Jan. 6 narrative.
“I started debunking them, and they got mad at me and they started getting more mad at me and started a smear campaign on me,” Hemphill related. “That I was a fed agent. That I was Antifa. Just silly children, highschool stuff.
“I’m not a victim,” Hemphill insisted to The Daily Beast. “I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, period. I mean, I was trespassing. I had a choice — I could have left.”