For the sprawling community of January 6 activists—a smorgasbord of MAGA personalities, family members of jailed rioters, and rioters who’ve completed their sentences—Trump’s nomination of Patel is an indication that retribution is coming. And part of that retribution isn’t just about granting pardons and clemency to the rioters: It’s about going after those that put them behind bars in the first place.
Since at least the 1990s and the Waco siege, the anti-government movement in America has viewed the FBI as its enemy. Trump’s first presidency and the Covid-19 pandemic took anti-government animus mainstream. That animus was turbocharged by the investigations and prosecutions of January 6-ers, as well as by the federal investigations of Trump. And the narrative that both Trump and January 6 defendants are “political prisoners” of a corrupt and tyrannical “Biden Regime,” hunted down by his personal Gestapo in FBI uniforms, took hold.
The MAGA media ecosystem and network of J6 activists believe that Patel, if he takes the reins of the FBI, will root out corruption, expose all sorts of nefarious plots designed to damage Trump, and prove that J6 was a false flag.
“The FBI deserves Kash Patel,” wrote Suzzanne Monk, a prominent J6 advocate, on X. “They earned the ass whoopin he’s bringing.” “That Kash Patel pick put the traitors in our government on notice,” wrote MAGA commentators The Hodge Twins on X.
“How many FBI agents were present for J6?” wrote Representative Mike Collins from Georgia, on X. “We’re about to find out.”
Representative Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana, chimed in via a post that addressed Wray directly. “Mr Wray. Remain close to DC. Your presence will be commanded,” Higgins wrote on X. “In this Holiest of seasons, as you box up your mementos of oppression, may visions of the thousands of American J6 families you’ve destroyed dance through your head.”
Philip Anderson, an accused rioter facing federal and misdemeanor charges for January 6, said on X that they’ll have to wait and see whether Patel and Trump put their money where their mouths are. “We aren’t taking you people seriously until you end the J6 prosecutions on Day One.”
So far, beyond his Truth Social post, Trump hasn’t said much about whether he plans to make good on his promises to grant pardons and clemency to January 6ers. Some hopeful defendants have sought to delay their proceedings or even drop charges entirely. Some lawyers are unsure whether Trump would pursue a blanket pardon for everyone involved in January 6, or grant pardons and clemency selectively based on, for example, the types of crimes people are accused of.
Meanwhile, Riggleman suggests that Patel faces an uphill, if not impossible, battle to get confirmed as the head of the FBI. Patel’s former colleagues from various points in his career have questioned his competence to lead the agency. “If there’s anyone that’s sane, I don’t think the Senate will confirm him,” said Riggleman. “But then again, there are senators who are very afraid of Donald Trump and their own reelection prospects.”
