Jan. 6 rioter's son reflects on Trump pardoning his dad

In 2022, Guy Reffitt was the first defendant to be convicted for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. Reffitt — a member of the far-right group Three Percenters — was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison with a $2,000 fine and three years of supervised release. On his first day in office, President Trump pardoned Reffitt.

A report by his son, Jackson Reffitt, led to Guy Reffitt’s initial arrest. Jackson Reffitt recorded his father boasting about storming the Capitol and turned him in. Before his arrest, his father threatened to kill Jackson Reffitt and his siblings if they went to the authorities. Jackson Reffitt says he remembers his father holding a gun to his mother’s head.

Jackson Reffitt worries the pardons endanger people related to violent insurrectionists like his father.

“There are thousands of people out there that feel the same way I do, and that are directly connected to these people,” Jackson Reffitt says. “The validation that people are going to get from this is just terrifying to linger on.”

“I have no idea. They've moved him throughout the years, of course, as they do with most prisoners in this horrible prison system. But he's most likely up in D.C., and my sisters and my mom were invited to the inauguration. And I believe they're waiting outside the jail as we talk.”

“Oh my god, yes. This is your president, the guy that didn't know you existed, who used you, and you were still willing to die for him.

“But when he reaches his hand out and gives you a get-out-of-jail-free card and saves you, I can't imagine what it's going to do for him now. That's the kind of validation that kills. It's terrifying to think about.”

“Let's be blunt, I'm worried about my father. I'm worried about these people who see my story and are more outraged than anything else. I’m worried about the people associated with my mom, my dad.

“My dad, at the end of his trial, said he would never contact these militias again, and then I see him online posting videos from prison, sending them out online to validate and downplay the events of Jan. 6 for these far-right groups. I mean I've seen videos of my mom sitting in front of far-right crowds when she says my name and you hear the groans and the yelling of the crowd, ‘Why the hell did that kid do that?’ ‘Oh my gosh, if he was my kid, do you know what I would have done?’”

“To gain a sense of normality, I had to move. I had to pick up within a couple weeks, find a new place, and just get out of there and find a new sensible spot where no one knows where I am.

“I had to abandon a lot of my friends and people who I call my family now, just to find some comfort and safety. That was my number one priority at the time. My number two priority was buying a handgun and putting that on my waist almost 24/7.”

Lynn Menegon produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Peter O'Dowd. Grace Griffin adapted it for the web.