DENVER — More than 1,000 people from across the country were criminally charged as a result of their actions on Jan. 6, 2021 when a crowd of people forced their way inside the U.S. Capitol as a joint session of Congress convened to certify the 2020 election results. On President Donald Trump's first day in office Monday, he issued sweeping pardons for all of the people charged in relation to January 6, 2021, calling their prosecution "a grave national injustice."
There was an estimated $2,881,360.20 in damages to the building, grounds and other costs related to the U.S. Capitol Police. An estimated 140 police officers were assaulted that day, including Officer Brian Sicknick who later suffered two strokes and died the next night.
The chair of political science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, Robert Preuhs, said the January 6 pardons were both expected and surprising.
"On one hand, there were promises throughout the campaign that that would be the case and pardons for all the folks that were involved in the riots. At the same time, some of the feelers coming out from particularly the vice president, said that it would be a bit more nuanced only for non-violent offenders, so it's not really clear, and I was a bit surprised at the breadth of that pardon," Preuhs said. “We're in a highly partisan context right now, and so some of those things might be forgiven, depending on your partisan orientation, but for the most part, yeah, that may be something that's hard for the Trump administration to explain.”
Denver7 sat down with two Coloradans who were pardoned — with two different perspectives — to discuss what happened that day, and if they regret it.
Patrick Montgomery
At 52 years old, Patrick Montgomery spent the majority of his years working as a river guide. He grew up in New Mexico in a religious family that emphasized the importance of the outdoors.
Montgomery doesn't describe himself as a political person and is not a lifelong Republican. He identifies more as a Libertarian and did not vote for Trump in 2016.
He began supporting Trump after his first term in office, but does not deny the 2020 election results.
Montgomery said he believed he was attending a rally in support of Trump as he headed to Washington, D.C. in January of 2021.
“One of my friends called me, you know, about Christmas time, and asked me, 'Hey, you know I'm going to this rally for Donald Trump. You want to come with me?' At first, my answer was, 'No.' I just couldn't really afford to do that after being locked down, you know, all of 2020. He made the counter offer that, you know, he was going to pay my way. And so for me, it was a free trip to Washington, D.C. I've never been been there before," Montgomery said. "I also wanted to, you know, show support for a man that I didn't start off supporting. You know, I thought he had done a good job and and earned our respect... enough that I wanted to basically, kind of thank him for the job that he had done on his way out of office.”
According to Montgomery, he never expected what happened on January 6.
“It was never part of our intention to try to interrupt that vote. That was a vote that most people understood was necessary to happen. It doesn't make any sense that we would try to interfere with that and try to keep that from happening when both sides knew that had to happen. You know, we wanted a different result, but we definitely didn't want to stop that vote from happening," Montgomery said.
The day has been described in many ways — an attack, riot, insurrection and threat to democracy. Montgomery said all of those words are fairly accurate. He added there was a lot of confusion that day as well, especially as crossed onto the Capitol grounds.
“We didn't realize that as soon as we walked onto the Capitol grounds that we all the sudden became apparently guilty of trespassing. We didn't see any signs that told us that we weren't supposed to be there," Montgomery said. "I was a little confused in the moment because of the instructions that we had received from, you know, Donald Trump. He said he was going to meet us there, and there was going to be this big rally. So the stuff that, you know, later we found out had been set up for the inauguration that was coming up, I originally took that as being set up for the protest that day.”
The mood shifted, Montgomery said, when individuals with megaphones began announcing that then-Vice President Mike Pence had certified the election and the process was completed.
"They were hoping that Mike Pence was going to be their Savior, if you would, and that he would agree to not certify that election. Personally, I don't think he had that power," Montgomery said. “People went from being hopeful to being let down."
Along with the crowd, Montgomery headed toward the Capitol. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), "Montgomery grabbed a law enforcement officer’s baton and attempted to wrestle it away from the officer. The officer held onto the baton and fell to the ground with Montgomery... During the scuffle, Montgomery kicked the police officer in the chest."
Montgomery claims he was acting in self defense.
"I don't even really remember making a decision to do it," Montgomery said about grabbing the officer's baton. “I didn't know what to do at that time. I literally felt like I kind of had the tiger by the tail, if you will. And so I held on to the baton. The crowd surged in our direction, pushing us both down to the ground. You know, I fell down... I began to get hit by some of the other officers that had their batons while I was on the ground. So I rolled over on my back in a defensive position, and kind of got my feet up where I could use them to, you know, basically just try to keep a little space. And I, you know, I did, I pushed off Daniel Hodges' [the officer's] shoulder. That's what they're referencing when they're saying that I kicked Hodges in the chest. I don't really consider that a kick.”
Still, Montgomery admitted it is never acceptable to assault a law enforcement officer.
In October of 2024, Montgomery was sentenced to 37 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release after pleading guilty to assaulting law enforcement. He ended up serving around a month of that sentence before being pardoned on Monday.
"My life, you know, personally, it's been a wreck," Montgomery said. "I've lost my business. I've lost my job... But my biggest thing is my reputation amongst my colleagues and my friends within my industry.”
Montgomery said he regrets that day, and would not do it again.
"It was hard to believe, very surreal, you know, saddening in a lot of ways. You know, that our country had got to a point where, where this was actually happening," Montgomery said. "To me that building is, you know, a very sacred place. You know, it's not something that I wanted to see the inside ransacked and destroyed... There was also a curiosity, you know, I'd never been in the Capitol before. If they were going to let us in there, why not? But at the end of the day, I wish I hadn't."
He believes the message on January 6 would have been more effective if it had not devolved into storming the Capitol.
“We do have remorse. I mean, what happened that day was a bad experience for our country. You know, my hope in sharing this is that we can begin to heal from it, you know, as a country," Montgomery said. “But I don't think that we're going to be able to do that, as long as we keep putting American citizen against American citizen. We are the United States of America. And when we act that way and behave that way, we are a stronger America and that benefits all of us. And that's where I'm hoping to get back to."
- Watch the full interview with Patrick Montgomery in the video player below:
Rebecca Lavrenz
Rebeccan Lavrenz, 72, spent Wednesday morning traveling back from the inauguration of President Trump.
"It was an honor. It was just awe-inspiring to be able to be there for such a historic event and coming back after being convicted and really banned from being there," Lavrenz said from her home on Wednesday evening, while still wearing an ankle monitor.
Lavrenz said the judge in her case allowed her to attend the inauguration, despite being on house arrest. She was sentenced to six months of house arrest, banned from the internet for six months, and was fined $103,000 as punishment for misdemeanor charges related to her role in the insurrection.
Court documents detail Lavrenz breaching the Capitol and photographs show her within the Rotunda.
“God wanted me. He said, 'if the door is open, I want you to carry my presence in the building.' And when the barriers came down, I felt like I was supposed to do that, which I did," Lavrenz said. “The first thing I thought, when I got inside, I was only in there for 10 minutes, and I got in there, and I am exactly where I need to be. I know why God put me in here.”
Lavrenz, who is called the "J6 Praying Grandma," does not regret her actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
"This whole situation that came about on Jan. 6, 2021 was not about me. It's about our nation — to save our nation. Our nation was going down. We've heard President Trump say that forever, you know. And if we don't do something about it, then we aren't going to have a nation. It has to return to a godly nation," Lavrenz said.
Lavrenz was pardoned, but she does not want it to interfere with her appeal.
"I definitely want to have the sentence that I had examined by the higher courts, because they do believe they violated my First Amendment rights during my trial, and I don't want the precedent for future to come to be what was done at my trial," Lavrenz said.
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