Local officers thinking of Capitol police as Jan. 6 pardons unfold

Local law enforcement expressed support for the more than 100 injured police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack while Columbus’ congressional delegation has remained silent following President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon, commute or dismiss the cases of 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the attack — including three current and former Bartholomew County residents.

Trump’s action, just hours after his return to the White House on Monday, paves the way for the release from prison of people found guilty of violent attacks on police, as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep the Republican in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

The pardons are a culmination of Trump’s years-long campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack, which left more than 100 police officers injured as the angry mob of Trump supporters — some armed with poles, bats and bear spray — overwhelmed law enforcement, shattered windows and sent lawmakers and aides running into hiding. While pardons were expected, the speed and the scope of the clemency amounted to a stunning dismantling of the Justice Department’s effort to hold participants accountable over what has been described as one of the darkest days in the country’s history.

Rep. Jefferson Shreve, R-Indiana, who campaigned in the Sixth District which includes Bartholomew County on supporting law enforcement, has remained silent on the pardons. Shreve’s campaign website states that one of his top priorities in Congress would be to “back the blue,” stating, “I will continue to back our men and women in law enforcement.”

Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, also have not released statements on the pardons.

Many of the Jan. 6 rioters were convicted of committing acts of violence against police in what the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has described as “likely the largest single-day, mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history.”

Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol, including about 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

For instance, one rioter was convicted of stomping on police officers’ heads, swinging poles at officers, striking an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacking police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture.

Another person was convicted of dragging a police officer, face down and headfirst, into a crowd of rioters and then beat the face-down officer at least three times with a flag pole. Others were convicted of ramming police with battering rams and spraying officers with pepper and bear spray.

“One hundred and forty officers guarding the Capitol that day reported physical injury, but we know from talking to the hundreds of officers guarding the Capitol that day that this 140 number undercounts the number of officers who were physically injured, let alone those who have suffered trauma as a result of the day’s events,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves said previously.

The Columbus Police Department said Tuesday that “our thoughts are with the officers who were injured” during the attack.

“That’s where our thoughts are, with all those officers that were injured,” CPD spokesman Sgt. Skylar Berry said.

Bartholomew County Sheriff Chris Lane said he did not know enough about individual cases to be able to comment at this point.

“I’m like everybody else, I’m just kind of sitting back waiting to see how this all pans out, because it’s going to take a little bit, I think, for it to sink in,” Lane said.

However, Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith praised Trump’s decision to pardon the rioters. Beckwith previously said that God told him that He sent rioters to bludgeon and assault police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Let’s go!! These good patriots are coming home! Thank you Mr President for freeing the J6 hostages from the lawfare committed by the Biden admin!” Beckwith said in a Facebook post.

Trump’s order is expected to impact three local residents who had faced criminal charges stemming from the Jan. 6 attack.

Former Columbus resident and heavy metal musician Jon Schaffer was sentenced in October to three years of probation and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Schaffer, who is best known as a former member of the heavy metal band Iced Earth, was photographed inside the U.S. Capitol during the attack wearing a tactical vest and hat that said, “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member,” with bear spray in his hand, according to court filings.

In April 2021, Schaffer pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding and entering and remaining in a restricted building or ground with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Last year, prosecutors and Schaffer’s attorney filed a joint notice in federal court acknowledging that he was seeking records and documents related to the certification of the 2020 presidential election — including ballot certificates — when he stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Schaffer cooperated with federal authorities investigating other participants in the attack.

While the court filing redacts the names of the individuals Schaffer provided information on, his attorneys said in October 2022 that he was cooperating with federal authorities investigating Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer who was convicted in November 2022 in the U.S. Capitol attack alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.

Schaffer’s attorney described the investigation into Caldwell at the time as the “largest conspiracy arising out of the incident,” referring to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Caldwell was mentioned by name in Trump’s order.

In October, James Behymer of Hope and Donald Lee Moss of Elizabethtown pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer during the U.S. Capitol attack, according to court filings.

However, the two men have yet to be sentenced. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan had scheduled a sentencing hearing for Feb. 13.

The offense would have carried a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised release, according to court records.

Currently, it is unclear how soon the cases will be dismissed.

“As soon as we have information to share, we will get back to everyone,” U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia spokeswoman Patty Hartman told The Republic on Tuesday. “I don’t think we would be putting out a list of individual defendants today.”

Federal prosecutors allege that Behymer and Moss were part of a group of “angry and violent rioters” who descended upon and assaulted D.C. Metropolitan police officers near the lower west terrace of the U.S. Capitol who were attempting to keep them from breaching the building on Jan. 6, 2021.

Federal prosecutors also included images they claim are of the two men that were taken from officers’ body cameras and third-party footage.

The complaint alleges that Moss and Behymer shoved officers’ arms away from them as the group of rioters “surged toward the surrounded MPD officers and began violently assaulting the officers.” The complaint further alleges that Behymer struck an officer in the wrist and later attempted to pry a baton out of an officer’s hand while stating, “Now I’m being soft, but I do want this pole.”

Moss, who at one point shouted, “This is our (expletive) house” while pointing at the Capitol, allegedly struck an officer’s arm and baton and forcefully pushed another police officer from behind during the attack, the complaint states.