The newly sworn-in 119th Congress will certify the results of the 2024 election today, paving the way for President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration. The last time elected officials gathered for this procedure, the day turned deadly.
On Jan. 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to halt the certification of President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. Rioters and police officers were killed in the chaos, and hundreds more individuals were injured. Then-Texas Congressman Collin Allred has said the event was so harrowing he “wasn’t sure if he was going to make it out” of the Capitol as insurrectionists broke into the building.
In the years since the insurrection, the Department of Justice has charged over 1,500 individuals from across the country with crimes related to the attack. Nearly half have been sentenced to at least some jail time on charges ranging from unlawful parading to seditious conspiracy.
A handful of North Texans are still serving sentences for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack, and each is likely now looking to Trump, who has vowed to pardon some rioters who remain incarcerated for Jan. 6-related crimes. In his recent Person of the Year interview, Trump told TIME magazine he’d grant clemency to nonviolent offenders in the “first hour” or even “the first nine minutes” of his second presidency.
“If [those charged] were nonviolent, I think they’ve been greatly punished,” Trump said. “I’m going to look if there’s some that really were out of control.”
Trump’s case-by-case approach to the pardons has some legal analysts questioning where the line between violent and nonviolent crimes will be drawn. Joseph McBride, a lawyer for several Jan. 6 defendants, told CNN he believes some “members of the January 6 community” will be disappointed to hear Trump is not planning to offer a blanket pardon across all cases. Another defense attorney, whom CNN did not name, added that Trump’s pardons seem to be focused on individuals who are currently incarcerated and not on wiping the records of those who have already served their sentences.
Even with the promise of pardons on the horizon, the Department of Justice is continuing to bring charges against those believed to have been at the riot. Last month, 51-year-old Daniel Dustin Deneui of Colleyville became the latest North Texan to be arrested on charges related to Jan. 6.
Deneui was arrested in Fort Worth on Dec. 18 and charged with “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder); entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; destruction of property; and an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings."
According to the DOJ, Deneui was flagged by police at the “Stop the Steal” rally for carrying a baton and wearing body armor. Third-party video shows Deneui assisting with the destruction of a Capitol window and sticking a flagpole through a window, hitting a U.S. Capitol police officer, a federal complaint alleges. The complaint includes images of a man detectives believe to be Deneui wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.
The FBI’s Fort Worth and Washington, D.C., field offices are investigating the case.
Other North Texans Who Could Be Pardoned by Trump
Thomas Ballard of Fort Worth was sentenced to 54 months in prison for assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon in 2023.
Court documents state that Ballard joined the mob storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 while wearing an “Infowars” baseball cap — referencing the online, far-right show whose host, Alex Jones, is known to promote conspiracy theories and fake news. Ballard is believed to have taken part in “a series of assaults on police officers using numerous makeshift weapons” while standing in the tunnel area of the Capitol building, “where some of the most violent conflict was inflicted on police officers,” the Department of Justice says.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Ballard is being held at the FMC Fort Worth prison and will be released in June of this year. U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon also ordered three years of supervised release after Ballard has left prison.
Robert Dennis of Garland is also expected to be released this year after serving 36 months in the FCI Texarkana prison. Dennis was found guilty of civil disorder and two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, and the misdemeanor charges of engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; and act of physical violence in the capitol grounds or buildings.
At trial, Dennis was found to have punched and “engaged in a violent struggle with” two police officers while attempting to breach the Capitol building. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nialah Ferrer wrote in a legal filing that Dennis told investigators he’d driven to D.C. for the “Stop the Steal” rally because “he was waiting for the ‘Kraken’ to be released.”
A judge ordered Dennis to serve two years of supervised release following the end of his prison sentence in May.
Continuing with the theme of North Texans found guilty of assaulting police officers, Donald Hazard of Hurst is expected to be released from the RRM Baltimore facility in May after serving two years for the assault of officers that resulted in serious bodily injury.
Hazard was the “sergeant-at-arms” of a militia group named the Patriot Boys of North Texas, court filings show, and investigators believe that Hazard’s acquisition of weapons and protective gear ahead of the Jan. 6 rally are evidence that he was “eager for violence.” Court documents state that Hazard violently clashed with multiple police officers, including one who hit his head on the Capitol’s concrete stairs. The officer was knocked unconscious and sustained injuries to his head, foot and arm, some of which required surgery, the Department of Justice says.
“We’re here at the nation’s Capitol and we’re storming it. We’re taking the Capitol. … This is America, baby,” authorities claim Hazard said in a selfie-style video.
Following his release from prison, Hazard will serve 36 months of supervised release, records show.
Last month, Dallas actor and director Luke Russell Coffee was found guilty of six felony offenses — civil disorder; two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a weapon; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds using a weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds using a weapon — and a misdemeanor charge of physical violence on the Capitol grounds.
Investigators say Coffee “aggressively charged” at Capitol officers while using a crutch as a “blunt weapon.” In the weeks following Jan. 6, images of Coffee raising his hands while wearing a cowboy hat and camo jacket were plastered on FBI wanted posters and earned him the social media moniker the #HighFiveCowboy. According to reporting by Texas Monthly, Coffee retreated to a Hill Country resort for six weeks as his family and FBI agents encouraged him to turn himself in for taking part in the insurrection.
In Feb. 2021, Coffee surrendered himself to authorities in Dallas. Coffee, who at one time appeared in NBC’s Friday Night Lights, is believed to have fallen into the conspiracy theory network QAnon during the pandemic, leading to his participation in Jan. 6.
Coffee is expected to face sentencing this April, but a presidential pardon could keep him from seeing the inside of a jail cell any further.
Fear and Anxiety at the Promise of Pardons
For one family, the potential of a North Texas man being released from prison at the behest of Trump is anxiety-inducing. In an interview with USA Today, Eureka, Montana, resident Tasha Adams stated that if her estranged husband, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, was granted clemency, she believes her life would be in danger.
“He is somebody that had a kill list — always,” Adams said. “And obviously, now I'm on this list, and so are some of my kids, I'm sure.”
Rhodes was a Granbury resident and founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group who, in 2023, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy after playing a leading role in the Jan. 6 attack. The Southern Poverty Law Center states that the Oath Keepers are a militaristic, antigovernment group that appeals to members of law enforcement and the military.
The Department of Justice states that Rhodes was one of several individuals who played a critical role in organizing the Capitol riot by recruiting members willing to use violence, arranging the transport of firearms and weapons to Washington D.C., and continuing to plot after Jan. 6 to oppose the transfer of presidential power. After his arrest in 2022, Adams testified against her husband and believes her testimony helped keep Rhodes in prison before his trial.
Rhodes’ 18-year sentence is one of the most severe doled out to Capitol rioters.
Even as Trump tells reporters he is only looking to pardon non-violent offenders, Adams says she has prepared passports for herself and her children in case her former husband is released. (Rhodes, through his attorneys, told USA Today that his family’s belief he poses a danger to them is “libelous and defamatory” and “so false.”)
“I've got to keep him in jail,” Adams said. “I have to keep him in jail, and it can't fail — because I'm in a whole mess of trouble if I fail.”
