Last Updated on November 11, 2021
Inmates from the January 6 protests were involved in a fight between guards at a D.C. jail, after one inmate who refused to wear a mask was maced by a guard, a lawyer for one of the inmates tells National File.
Amid various media reports of abuse by guards onto prisoners locked up in a Washington D.C. jail for their alleged involvement in the January 6 protests on Capitol Hill, National File now understands that on Thursday, another incident of seeming abuse occurred.
Attorney Jonathon Moseley, who represents multiple January 6 detainees, told National File that one detainee who refused to wear a face mask was maced by a guard for his noncompliance.
This incident then sparked off a “ruckus” between the inmates and the guards. Tear gas was subsequently deployed at the detainees by the guards, resulting in the inmates struggling to breathe. Three detainees were taken out on stretchers. As a result, the entirety of those prisoners have been on lockdown since 10 a.m. on Thursday.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been an advocate for many of those who have been jailed as a result of the January 6 protests, called for the US Marshals to investigate the incident immediately. “This abuse of Americans must END NOW!” Taylor Greene wrote, calling for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to shut the jail down. “These detainees are pre-trial and this is a violation of their constitutional rights.”
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Moseley told National File that it appears some of the guards are using their vaccine status to justify stringent coronavirus measures, such as the enforcement of the wearing of face masks, even though many prisoners have been vaccinated themselves.
Moseley argued that a reason for potential mistreatment and abuse was because the guards may be influenced by members of Congress and the media who falsely portray the detainees as Neo-Nazis or white supremacists. “If the people who work in the jail all believe it, these people may be in danger from these false statements,” Moseley said.
He added that the jail itself is also a “mess,” with reports of US Marshals discovering unsanitary black mold. Judge Royce Lambert held the head of the jail in contempt, and ordered that the jail be chemically fumigated or cleansed as a result. Fellow attorney Brad Geyer claimed that following the cleaning, other January 6 inmates are “complaining that suddenly their food smells of chemicals.”
The federal government’s prosecutors have also attempted to move one of Moseley’s other January 6 clients, Zach Rehl, to the D.C. jail where today’s violence occurred.
Rehl has been imprisoned since March of this year, and missed the birth of his daughter while detained. After Rehl ended his relationship with his prior attorney, and while he was actively searching for another, the prosecution sought to transport him to Washington, D.C. Moseley has fought this, citing reports of abuse and startlingly poor conditions in the facility.
Rehl, who is the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys, is currently raising money for his defense, and expects he will need up to $75,000 to prove his innocence.
