'Like being in a gang': the Jan. 6 rioter who left MAGA and told Trump to shove his pardon

When President Donald Trump issued more than 1,500 pardons to rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, one insurrectionist who spent time in prison for his role in the attack told the president in no uncertain terms he didn’t want forgiveness.

“I don't regret refusing the pardon by any means, but I'm kind of stooping myself to Trump's level when I tell him to shove it up his a–,” Jason Riddle told Raw Story.

“I actually emailed the White House, apologizing for saying that.”

Still, Riddle has been pushing for the White House and the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Department of Justice to formally acknowledge his refusal of the pardon — because the country is “heading to a real dark place” again under Trump, he said.

“I absolutely want it official that I'm against this because people that support this are going to be complicit with wherever this is going,” Riddle said.

‘Unhealthy obsession’

Riddle knows better than most where Trump has taken America already. He became a Trump supporter after watching him command the crowd during the Republican primary debates for the 2016 election.

In college, after serving in the Navy, Riddle said he and a fellow veteran found following Trump “a way to turn our school experience into just being able to hang out and drink and argue with people.” Together, they traveled to Trump rallies, drinking in the candidate's promise to Make America Great Again.

Riddle and his friend stayed loyal through Trump's first term. On Jan. 6, they both attended Trump’s Stop the Steal event in Washington, where the president and key allies pursued the lie that Joe Biden's 2020 election victory was the result of voter fraud.

Trump told supporters to march on Congress, there to “fight like hell” to block certification of Biden's win.

When Riddle arrived at the Capitol, he joined the second wave of rioters who went inside.

Now, Riddle says formal acknowledgement that he refused a pardon for what he did there — stealing a bottle of wine and a Senate procedure book — would be part of his process of leaving behind the “unhealthy obsession” with Trump that brought him to that point.

The insurrection failed. Trump faced criminal charges related to his election subversion but never faced trial and returned to power. Riddle was sentenced to 90 days in prison and three years of probation, in addition to paying $754 in restitution.

“You need to be in a state of tension to be a Trump supporter,” Riddle told Raw Story.

“You need to believe in something that’s not healthy to believe in. It’s only a matter of time that either consumes you, or you can free yourself.”

Now, the waiter from New Hampshire has asked members of Congress from his state — Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Maggie Goodlander, both Democrats — for help in getting his refusal recognized.

In late August, Riddle emailed a Hassan staffer, asking for an approach to the pardon office.

“If I can be so bold as to ask if you can possibly pester them again,” he wrote, “I know they’re busy dismantling our democracy, I’d very much like to have this legitimized.”

Riddle said Goodlander and Hassan’s offices contacted the DOJ and pardon office but haven’t received responses.

The White House and DOJ did not respond to Raw Story's requests for comment.

‘That's when I was done’

Riddle is now part of a growing online community of former Trump supporters called Leaving MAGA, alongside members including a former teenage Trumper and a New York mother of four who was a QAnon believer.

While following the MAGA movement, Riddle said, “I didn't have any sort of normal friends."

“My whole family kind of gave up on me. My husband and I, it wasn't going well, and he thankfully stuck it out.”

Riddle said his time in MAGA involved a lot of heavy drinking with his college friend.

“It wasn't illegal, the life we were living, but it felt almost like being in a gang or [being] a gangster,” Riddle said.

“Everywhere we went, we were uninvited. People were upset, and then we started getting used to that and liking it.”

Prison forced sobriety on Riddle, he said, only for him to relapse after release. Having joined Alcoholics Anonymous, he hasn’t “gone back to that lifestyle since — not interested in it.”

“I replaced Trump rallies with Broadway shows and beach excursions, things like that,” Riddle said.

Years after the insurrection, Riddle was disturbed to learn just how close he had come to some of the people who died in and around the Jan. 6 attack, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes after being attacked by rioters.

“That's pretty disturbing,” Riddle said.

He recalled learning about the death of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol police officer during the riot, from the man he said he “hawked” him the stolen Senate procedure book for $40.

“That's when I stopped thinking it was funny. I remember looking up and seeing all these cops barricading us into the Capitol building, and me thinking, ‘They can shoot us right now, legally,” Riddle said.

“I mean that’s the whole point of being a conservative, right? We're always trying to figure out [how] we can get away with legally shooting people, and there we were. Police telling us to, ‘Get back. Get away,’ and we're just ignoring [them]. I've never seen police officers so helpless, literally surrendering at the door where I'd entered.”

In April 2022, Riddle pleaded guilty to theft of government property and illegally protesting in the Capitol. When he reported to prison that summer, he said “correctional officers treated me better,” knowing he had participated in the Jan. 6 riot.

“My identity was, ‘I was the Capitol rioter,’” Riddle said. “It was actually positive attention, but it was in prison, so is that really positive attention?”

Riddle didn’t leave the Republican party. In fact, he declared his intention to run in the GOP primary for New Hampshire’s second congressional district, in both 2022 and 2024.

He wasn’t officially on the ballot in 2022 — because he was in prison. In a 2023 Ballotpedia survey, he called himself a “recently released January 6th political prisoner.”

When Trump asked supporters in 2023 to protest his indictment for falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to the adult film star, Stormy Daniels, Riddle said: “That's when I was done.”

Trump ultimately was found guilty of 34 felonies at the New York trial.

“I'm like ‘You're going to get another Ashli Babbitt killed.'”

Riddle said he then abandoned his political aspirations and deleted social media accounts where he’d amassed a following.

“I thought I was a politician on social media,” he said. “I tried to drop out of the Congress race that I signed up for and really showed my expertise in politics there. You can't.”

‘We’ve gone back’

Riddle said he supported former Vice President Kamala Harris' run against Trump in the 2024 presidential election, first because she was the “anti-Trump” candidate, then because she won him over with her messaging, specifically: “We are not going back.”

But that's exactly what’s happened since Trump was re-elected, Riddle said.

“We've gone back. We're back,” Riddle said.

“Look at D.C. It's under occupation. The FBI is raiding [Trump’s] former security adviser [John Bolton]. It's pretty dystopian.”

Riddle found his own recent interaction with the FBI concerning. After Trump's pardons were announced, he was contacted about retrieving his belongings.

“The FBI agents, basically, they didn't apologize, but [they] might as well have apologized,” Riddle said.

One “did say, ‘Sorry you had to go through this ordeal, and you will not be investigated anymore.’ He said that to me, and that's supposed to make me feel better? It doesn't. It's scary. It's a law enforcement agency choosing a political side.”

Another attack in Washington won't be out of the question at the end of Trump’s second term, Riddle said, “especially if he's forced to be removed.”

“I don't see him going peacefully,” Riddle said.

“It looks like Trump's literally setting the stage for it to happen, with the putting in the military in D.C.”