Nevada Jan. 6 rioters react to Trump’s pardons: ‘Promise made. Promise kept’

Ronald Sandlin said he spent many long days and nights in solitary confinement during a nearly four-year prison sentence for his involvement in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when loyalists of President Donald Trump stormed the building attempting to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election because of false claims the results were rigged against him.

Sandlin said that while he was in prison, he couldn’t help feeling deserted by everyone, including Trump.

Sandlin, a Tennessee resident who had been arrested in Nevada, no longer feels that way after Trump this week issued a blanket pardon for more than 1,500 criminal defendants and commuted the sentences of 14 others for their involvement in the deadly breach of the Capitol.

“It felt like at the time that he had abandoned us,” Sandlin told the Sun. “But you know what? He hadn’t abandoned us. Promise made. Promise kept.”

Sandlin was released from custody late last year.

Trump, who has referred to those sentenced for Jan. 6 involvement as “hostages,” promised during the campaign to use one of his first acts in power to free his supporters facing legal consequences. The pardons undid the Department of Justice’s yearslong investigation into the rioters who stormed the Capitol, with many armed and intending to dissuade transitioning power to former President Joe Biden.

They tore down metal barricades outside the Capitol and were met by outnumbered Capitol Police officers in riot gear.

Four people died at the scene and a Capitol Police officer died the next day after collapsing during the rioting. At least four officers have died by suicide since then. Trump was later impeached for inciting an insurrection but not convicted. Damage to the Capitol was estimated around $2.8 million.

Hundreds of protesters pushed past the officers and made their way into the building, parading and hollering through the halls, and entering the Senate chamber and lawmakers’ offices.

Among those freed by Trump are 14 far-right extremists from the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were convicted or charged with seditious conspiracy. That includes Stewart Rhodes, a UNLV graduate and Oath Keepers founder who helped plan the insurrection and was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy.

At least nine people with ties to Nevada were granted clemency: Sandlin, Rhodes, Nathaniel “Nate” DeGrave, Brandon Dillard, Derek Dodder, Josiah Kenyon, Bradley Scott Nelson, Christine Barrello and Nolan Freeman.

Trump has flipped on what happened four years ago, initially condemning the “heinous attack” of “violence, lawlessness and mayhem” to describing it now as “a day of love from the standpoint of the millions.” He’s not alone in softening his tone. House Republicans have created a new subcommittee, completely autonomous from the preexisting Jan. 6 committee, to investigate the day’s legacy and its “false narratives.”

DeGrave, a Las Vegas resident, has noticed that change in how people discuss the events of the Capitol attack, adding he believed the “negative, darker sentiment around the day” was fading.

“My opinion and my perspective has remained pretty much consistent,” DeGrave said. “But I do appreciate the shift in perspective and opinion from the court of public opinion, I think even from people in our government.”

DeGrave was arrested on Jan. 28 2021, the same day as Sandlin; the two men, joined by Idaho resident Josiah Colt, drove to Washington together to participate.

DeGrave initially denied all charges before pleading guilty for conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers in June 2022, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for D.C. He finished serving his sentence before Trump took office, but he said the pardon was “a true gift.”

Following Trump’s executive order, DeGrave wrote on his X account — where he goes by the username “j6patriotnate” — “the hunters have just become the hunted.”

He said he never doubted that Trump, if elected president again, would follow through on his promise.

“It’s a demonstration that he’s with us. He’s a real leader,” DeGrave said about the president. “The pardons from Joe Biden reek of guilt and desperation, in my opinion.”

In his final days in office, Biden issued preemptive pardons for those he feared Trump might try to prosecute, including members of the House’s Jan. 6 investigation committee.

Inside the Capitol rotunda on the day of the attack, DeGrave and Sandlin were among the crowd that pushed against U.S. Capitol Police to grant entry for a mob outside, according to federal court filings.

Sandlin, court records said, shouted at officers, “Your life is not worth it today” and “You’re going to die, get out of the way.”

Reflecting on the interaction with the officers, Sandlin denied any violent intentions with his actions or comments, saying he never anticipated the day would play out the way it did.

“I was saying ‘this isn’t worth your life, man, get out of the way this is getting crazy. If you don’t get out of the way, you may die today.’” Sandlin said. “... It wasn’t a threat. It was me trying to help the guy out. It made me worried about this guy as a human being.”

Sandlin said he wasn’t trying to take over the Capitol, but not all Jan. 6 participants see it that way. Another Nevadan — Nelson of North Las Vegas — took to X two days after the attack.

“If all of us that were there had taken our guns, do you think that Capital (sic) building would be in control of the Capital (sic) police, or do you think it would be in control of patriot Americans,” Nelson wrote in a post addressed to Trump.

Nelson, who claimed he was the first through the Capitol doors, had stood on a scaffolding near the front of the crowd, and was shot by police using nonlethal ammunition, court filings showed. He encouraged fellow rioters to advance over defense lines and spent about half an hour inside the building.

After leaving, Nelson expressed interest in going back to the Capitol, adding in a video that “this is not going to stop.”

He was arrested in March 2023, then agreed to a plea deal in October and was still waiting for sentencing when Trump’s order came.

For many, the experiences from Jan. 6 didn’t deter defendants from remaining politically engaged.

“I don’t identify with any side of the aisle,” Sandlin said. “I identify as American.”

When he was incarcerated, Sandlin said he thought the whole world hated him and questioned the choices that landed him there — but four years later, he stands by the actions he took that day in 2021.

“I do believe, and still to this day, believe, that I stood up for the American dream and risked everything,” Sandlin said. “And it was quite devastating. I sat in solitary confinement for over a year and a half, and, quite frankly, I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on, that should be an outrage.”

Sandlin and DeGrave were among a group of more than 30 people being detained who submitted a handwritten letter requesting a transfer to Guantanamo Bay’s detention camp in place of their jail in Washington, citing “horrendous treatment” and “hellish conditions.”

Prosecutors in a court filing Jan. 17, days before Trump’s executive order signing, had recommended a sentence of 30 days in jail, three years probation and 60 hours of community service for Freeman, a Dayton resident who was arrested last year.

Freeman entered the Capitol through a broken window, stayed for 26 minutes and showed a “lack of remorse,” the court document read.

Barrello, a Las Vegas resident, was another participant in the Capitol attack to be arrested three years later. She accepted a plea deal in November 2024 and was still awaiting sentencing when the pardon came.

She appears to remain steadfast in her support for Trump, with all her recent Facebook photos related to him, including a cover photo with text that reads “Please pray for President Trump.”

The online impacts of social media on Jan. 6 are undeniable, something with which Dillard is familiar. The Las Vegas resident was dubbed “#SpiderNazi” by online sleuths after he was depicted climbing down a wall in a spider web-patterned hooded sweatshirt.

Dillard was sentenced to four months’ incarceration, one year of supervised release and $500 in restitution in April 2024.

Kenyon, who wore a Jack Skellington costume from “The Nightmare before Christmas” movie as he took part in the attack, was named in a criminal complaint in November 2021 saying he was one of the people responsible for damage to an exterior Capitol window. The replacement cost was $41,315.25.

In his sentencing in April 2023, Kenyon was ordered to pay over $43,000 in restitution and was sentenced to 72 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release; his pardon came while he was serving his prison time.

Dodder received a shorter sentencing — 14 days ­— and a year of probation and was ordered to pay $500 in restitution in July 2024.

The pardons return certain rights to the convicted, such as owning a firearm and voter restoration.

As he works to rebuild his life — hoping to move back to Las Vegas in the coming weeks — Sandlin is no longer questioning if he made the right call on Jan. 6.

“When you’re willing to take a bullet, when you’re ready to lay down in your life for something you love, that’s true love,” Sandlin said. “And that was what we saw on January 6. It was a lovefest.”