President Trump “outdid expectations” with his sweeping acts of clemency for the January 6 riot, one of those rioters accused — but not yet tried or convicted — of violent crimes, Edward Jacob Lang, tells the Sun, in an exclusive interview by telephone before his expected release from a cell at the District of Columbia jail.

Mr. Lang’s voice was jubilant even as he remained behind bars — for now — in the wake of the more than 1,500 pardons, commutations, and dismissals that Mr. Trump dispatched from the Oval Office. The exercise of one of the presidency’s least-fettered powers amounts to a stunning liquidation of one of the largest prosecutions in American history.  

A pardon of violent offenders is not unknown to American history. President Washington pardoned the Whiskey rebels, Governor Hancock pardoned the participants in Shays’ rebellion, and President John Adams pardoned the Fries rebels,some of whom were convicted of treason.  

During the campaign it appeared as if the category of defendants that comprises Mr. Lang — those accused of violent offenses — would not be pardoned. Vice President Vance, then a candidate, appeared to suggest that distinction. Mr. Trump, though, elected to offer pardon, commutations, and dismissals to everyone who participated in the riot at the Capitol. 

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Congressman Mike Lee, both staunch supporters of Mr. Trump, on Tuesday criticized what Ms. Taylor Greene called the “DC Gulag” for not releasing the likes of Mr. Lang with appropriate dispatch. She accuses the facility of “ignoring the orders of the Commander-in-Chief.” 

Mr. Lang tells the Sun that he “expects to be released imminently,” and that his pardon is a “complete spiritual vindication” and an echo of the experience he refers to as his “spiritual ancestors” — those Israelites who left the bondage of Egypt and crossed through a riven Red Sea. Mr. Lang calls the election of Mr. Trump an “indelible moment in American history” and a capstone of his “Christian experience.”

Mr. Lang, who calls himself a “political prisoner,” was arrested on January 16, 2021, at Newburgh, New York and indicted shortly after. A grand jury handed up 11 criminal counts against Mr. Lang, and he was accused of multiple acts of assault, physical violence, disorderly conduct, and obstruction of an official proceeding. Prosecutors accused him of wielding “a deadly or dangerous weapon, that is, a bat,” against Capitol Hill police officers. 

The Department of Justice alleges that Mr. Lang  “swung, thrusted, and/or jabbed the bat at law enforcement officers multiple times.” 

Mr. Lang is the longest serving January 6 defendant who has not yet been tried. He was set to go to trial in two weeks before Mr. Trump pardoned him. So technically he is presumed innocent. The judge hearing Mr. Lang’s case, Carl Nichols, was appointed by Mr. Trump but explained in court that any blanket pardon, like the one that was eventually issued, would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing.”

 Judge Nichols, though, granted Mr. Lang one final delay in his trial in November, after Mr. Lang argued that there was a possibility that he could secure a pardon in the aftermath of Mr. Trump’s victory. Mr. Lang, in arguing for that delay, declared in November that “There is a tornado and a hurricane outside this building right now and his name is Donald Trump. And he’s sweeping through the Department of Justice.”

Mr. Lang tells the Sun that he attempted to leave the prison last night but was restrained by guards. After his release, he shared, he hopes to go on a “freedom tour” that will take him to high schools, where he aims to share reflections on his experience of being a “political prisoner.” Before he could share which schools had issued an invitation, an automated voice cut in and explained that our call was over.   

This is the second time the Sun has spoken to Mr. Lang from behind bars. In July of 2023, told us that he aimed to “keep Donald Trump out of prison.” By that he meant he was challenging one of the charges against him and Mr. Trump — an obstruction statute that has its roots in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The official subtitle of Sarbanes-Oxley  is “An Act To protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes.” The Supreme Court eventually agreed that prosecutors had charged that crime too broadly.