'If it’s my time to die, it’s my time to die': Jan. 6 rioters 'further radicalized' in jail

17 October 2024

Despite their incarceration, participants in the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol haven't been rehabilitated. Rather, they appear to have hardened their resolve.

In one recent episode of the Atlantic's podcast, journalist Hannah Rosin interviewed Brandon Fellows, who in May was released after serving a 42-month sentence in the Washington, D.C. jail for felony and misdemeanor charges relating to his participation in the insurrection. Fellows climbed through a Capitol window and smoked marijuana in Sen. Jeff Merkley's (D-Oregon) office. He later spent time in a segregated wing of the D.C. jail with 20 to 30 other insurrectionists who committed much more serious offenses.

According to Rosin, both Fellows and his fellow inmates became "further radicalized" after spending time together — particularly after encouragement from former President Donald Trump, Republican members of Congress and right-wing media.

Initially after the insurrection, Flowers lived a low-key life in his hometown of Schenectady, New York, until the FBI solicited help from the public identifying January 6 participants. Online sleuths calling themselves the "Sedition Hunters" sent tips to the FBI. As Rosin noted, this ultimately led to Fellows seeing "a new type of visitor to his LinkedIn profile: so-and-so from the FBI Albany field office, the D.C. field office." Eventually police showed up at his mother's house, where he was staying, to apprehend him on federal charges. He eventually ended up at the D.C. jail, which has a reputation for violence.

"It’s July 2, 2021, is when I reached the D.C. jail. So I walk through the center doors, and—I kid you not—within 15 seconds, I hear on the speakers, Something, something, something, medical staff, medical staff, stabbing victim," Fellows said. "I start heading over to this basketball court, interior basketball court. So the first probably, like, two minutes, I see this dude come up to this dude, and he says, Where’s my honey bun? And he, all of a sudden, starts stabbing a guy... I was like, I gotta get out of here."

According to Rosin, most January 6 participants had never been to jail, so the intake process was particularly jarring for them. She said some insurrectionists "cried in the transport van" once they realized they were headed to jail. And because of the prominence of white supremacist groups at the insurrection and the fact that the D.C. jail's inmate population is around 90% Black, insurrectionists were housed in their own unit which became known as the "Patriot Pod."

Fellows was starstruck at his fellow inmates, like Julian Khater, who introduced himself as "the guy they accused of killing Officer [Brian] Sicknick," and Nathan DeGrave, who confessed to attacking a police officer. Another Patriot Pod inmate was Guy Reffitt, who brought a gun to the insurrection. They were all immediately welcoming to Fellows, and offered him money, clothes and food.

DeGrave managed to attract media attention with a letter he sent to far-right media outlet Gateway Pundit (which recently settled with the Georgia election workers it defamed) describing "inhumane" conditions at the D.C. jail and calling himself a "political prisoner." That letter was picked up by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and amplified by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia). A legal fund for January 6 participants on conservative crowdfunding site GiveSendGo exceeded $70,000 in just 24 hours. Eventually, the rioters would call themselves the "January 6 prison choir" after recording their own version of the national anthem, which Trump plays at his campaign rallies.

Following his release from the D.C. jail, Fellows stayed at a D.C. house known as the "Eagle's Nest" (the same name as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's residence). He got in a bar fight after a woman who criticized his MAGA hat attacked him, he hit her back, and then fought the woman's boyfriend.

Fellows told Rosin that he now wishes "people did more on January 6... I think it would have been better off if people actually would have actually been there for — like, more people would have actually been there for an insurrection." He also said America might need another Civil War.

"If it's my time to die it's my time to die," Fellows said. "I prefer not to, but life is beautiful."

Click here to read a transcript of the Atlantic's podcast episode about Fellows (subscription required).

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