Matt Gaetz leads first House hearing on Jan. 6 defendant abuse claims.

House Hearing on January 6th Riot: Accusations of Abuse of Power

Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) held a House hearing with Jan. 6 defendants and family members, the first of its kind, during which they outlined accusations of abuse of power from the government. Gaetz was joined by Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Troy Nehls (R-TX). The House members were joined by two legal experts, two Jan. 6 defendants, two family members of defendants, and one journalist and witness of the riot.

Testimonies of Abuse and Injustice

The field hearing, titled the “Field Hearing on January 6,” heard testimony alleging widespread abuse on the part of law enforcement concerning the Jan. 6 riot itself and the treatment of those detained over their alleged involvement.

Among the defendants was Jeff Clark, a senior fellow with the Center for Renewing America; Ed Martin, the president of Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund; Geri Perna, the aunt of deceased Jan. 6 defendant Matthew Perna; Sarah McAbee, the wife of Jan. 6 defendant Ronald McAbee; Jan. 6 defendants Brandon Straka and John Strand; and journalist Tayler Hansen, who witnessed and filmed the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt.

Among the first testimonies was that of Geri Perna, who gave a tearful testimony detailing the circumstances under which her nephew, Matthew Perna, 37, killed himself following his conviction over nonviolent conduct on Jan. 6. Geri Perna said her nephew was arrested for spending 14 minutes in the Capitol building on Jan. 6 and that the fallout from the incident had ruined his personal and professional life. She said those responsible for defending him in court had betrayed him.

“What followed was one betrayal after another from the moment Matt found out that the FBI was looking for him,” Geri Perna said. “He turned himself in. The agents said it would make it easier for him. That was a lie. He was told his clean record would count in his favor. It did not. He was told that having no affiliation with any organized group would help. That was another lie. Then he was told that he would most likely face a fine and nothing else. Not true either. His attorney said his sentence would be less if he made a deal and pled guilty to all charges. That was perhaps the greatest lie of all.”

Afterward, Geri Perna said, Matthew Perna was informed that prosecutors could add a terrorism sentence enhancer, which could see him put behind bars for several years rather than the few months he originally faced.

“We all have a breaking point, and that was Matt’s,” Geri Perna said. “A life in prison was not imaginable to him. On the phone, he was inconsolable.”

Soon after, Geri Perna’s nephew hanged himself in his garage. Geri Perna blamed his death on the “mental torture” he was subjected to from prosecutors and personally thanked Greene for introducing articles of impeachment against U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Robert Graves, whom she partially blames for Matthew’s death.

Geri Perna then urged the House members present to support a bill that Greene had sponsored, the Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2022, which would forbid the detention of nonviolent political protesters. McAbee testified that her husband was having his civil rights denied while under detention, being put under large periods of solitary confinement without trial, and facing violent assaults at the hands of guards.

Proposed Solutions

Later in the hearing, Gaetz and Greene discussed with the witnesses the perceived problems of biased Washington, D.C., juries, which they allege make a fair trial impossible. Geri Perna said the known biases of Washington juries force defendants who are not guilty to plead guilty out of fear. Martin proposed changing the jurisdiction of all Jan. 6 trials to mitigate the problem.

“And I would submit, by the way, a second idea — to take away jurisdiction, any Jan. 6 crimes should be … just put them anywhere. Put them in Denver, put them in Atlanta — anywhere would be better than this,” he said.

Gaetz accused some of the public defenders appointed to represent many of the defendants of being biased against their clients and sabotaging the cases.

“One of the things I’ve been troubled by is the conduct of some of the public defenders who were supposed to be advocating for their clients,” Gaetz said. “What should Congress know or be thinking about when we see public defenders in these cases going on social media and seemingly sharing their own bias against their own clients?”

Commitment to Action

The Florida Republican concluded the hearing by vowing to take action on what was stated by the panelists, saying he would work to use the powers of Congress to investigate the alleged abuse and injustices against the defendants.

“I want to thank all of our panelists who said that there is work to do now,” he added, “and what we have drawn … from all of you and from my colleagues here is that we have to use the power of legislation. We have to use the power of the appropriations writers, to use the power of the golden rule, as Dr. Gosar said, to look at specific bureaucrats who have turned against their oath.”

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