Convicted Jan. 6 grandma erupts at Trump for using her

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: 69-year-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 [sic], 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.

Prosecutors said Hemphill encouraged her fellow Trump supporters to go to Washington for the 45th president’s “Stop the Steal” rally that precipitated the riot, writing on her Facebook page Dec. 28, 2020: “It’s not going to be a FUN Trump rally that is planned for January 6th, its [sic] a WAR! The fight for America is REAL, show up I don’t want to hear your excuses! We have no second chances, if Millions and I mean Millions show up we may have chance. FIND A WAY!”

Hemphill also posted a photo of herself holding a gun that was captioned: “Happy New Year! On my way to Washington DC January 6th!” She now says the photo was a joke and the weapon was a plastic replica.

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.

As recently as March 4, Hemphill slammed the Justice Department’s handling of Hunter Biden’s case, tweeting: “Let this SINK in your head-I received a misdemeanor for being inside the Capital, sentenced to 60 days in prison, no criminal record, substance abuse counselor and under the care for breast cancer; yet Biden’s son is free!”

Hemphill told The Daily Beast her brother bought her a plane ticket to Washington to lift her spirits during her cancer treatment, and attributed her actions on Jan. 6 to a combination of excitement and the effect of pain medication. She flew back to Idaho the following day and was there when investigators tracked her down that summer.

“The FBI were really good to me,” she said. “They just have procedures. It’s just what they do.”

At one point, she recalled telling investigators: “I gotta vape for a minute here. I’m nervous. I’ve never been in jail in my life.”

Hemphill served her 60 days at the federal prison in Dublin, Calif., where she said she was surrounded by “cartel women” who “hate Trump” for his past attacks on Mexican immigrants.

“I was lucky to get out,” she told the outlet.

When Hemphill returned home, family members tried to persuade her how far she had strayed.

“[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, Hemphill went on, other participants in the riot were communicating with her about “all their victimness, gaslighting.

“And I started saying, ‘Wait, wait, wait. You guys, the officers were nice to me. I don’t see what you’re talking about.’ I started hearing all their lies, their stories. I said, ‘Wait, it doesn’t look like [the police] started anything.’”

Finally, Hemphill said, she came to her final realization 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 included 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, high school 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.”

At least five Secret Service agents have testified before a federal grand jury mulling potential charges against Trump over the riot, according to multiple reports.

Special counsel Jack Smith was tasked last year with spearheading the DOJ’s two inquiries revolving around Trump: the Capitol riot and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as well as the Mar-a-Lago classified document ordeal.

At least 1,051 individuals have been charged for their role in the ransacking of the Capitol, according to a tally by the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden is expected to enter a guilty plea to two felony misdemeanors for willful failure to pay his federal incomes taxes and enter a pretrial diversion agreement for a felony count of illegally possessing a firearm while addicted to illicit drugs.

A hearing on the matter has been set for July 26 in Wilmington, Del. federal court.