A southwestern Missouri town is the site of a rally this weekend that organizers say will honor and raise funds for those charged in the Capitol riot cases.
Called the J6 Truth and Light Freedom Festival, the event takes place Friday through Sunday in Rogersville and is expected to feature numerous speakers, live and via Zoom. Some face multiple felony charges in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack and one was recently sentenced to 18 years in prison.
“An incredible weekend of love and support for our J6 community!” says a flyer released about the event. “Bring your RV, tent, lawn chairs and the whole family to this annual Jan6 community gathering!”
But those who monitor extremist groups say the festival raises concerns about the potential for future violence.
“These events are really important to monitor,” said Chuck Tanner, research director at the Institute for Human Rights Research and Education, which has tracked extremist activity for decades. “You see the outlines of a movement that stretches from the corridors of government to far-right publications and groups – and a movement that continues to cast the January 6 insurgents as martyrs and build a framework for another far-right nationalist insurgency.”
Rogersville is a town of nearly 4,000 people about 19 miles southeast of Springfield. Seven of the 28 defendants in the Missouri Capitol riot are from the Springfield area. Organizers held a similar event in Rogersville last year.
The festival is “a closed event for J6’ers and their families only,” the promotional materials state. Tickets are $150 for a three-day family pass and $75 for one person. A daily pass costs $37.50 per person.
“Any previously or currently indicted J6 defendant is absolutely free!” says the material. “All funds go directly to the J6 community.”
A June 27 tweet from Sedition Hunters, an online research group that helped the FBI identify the rioters, called the festival an “event celebrating violence on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.” The tweet included a video of Nicole Reffitt, a scheduled speaker at the festival and wife of Guy Reffitt, a Texas man sentenced to more than seven years for multiple crimes, including carrying a loaded weapon on Capitol grounds.
In the video, Nicole Reffitt said the Sedition Hunters “can’t believe we would have a festival to get us together.”
“They mean we glorify crime and all those things,” she said. “That’s not what we do. It will be a rather peaceful Truth and Light Festival.
Festival sponsors include StopHate.com, J6Truth.org and American Gulag Chronicles, according to the flyer. Listed as “supporters” are J6 Patriot News, Patriot Mail Project, Tommy Tatum News, Freedom Express Media, Mel Hawley of Justice in Jeopardy and Patriots at Large.
The hosts are Sherry Bashlor from Jan6_Inmates and Kevin and Mary Caldwell of American Patriot Relief, a Texas-based organization whose purpose is “to be the community of our brothers and sisters under attack, to aid, assist and educate our community with legal advice and emotional, to provide financial support and resources, and to be on the ground to meet day-to-day needs,” the group’s website reads.
The organization says it raises money to help family members of defendants attend their hearings, visit them in prison and look after their children. He also launched an “Adopt a J6’er” program through which people can send commissioner funds to a defendant who is incarcerated.
Two of its founders, Mark and Jalise Middleton, are listed as speakers at the festival. Both were indicted in May 2021 in connection with the capitol breach and face numerous charges, including multiple felonies: assaulting, obstructing or interfering with officers or employees; civil disorder; and obstruction of justice.
The couple, who said they were attacked by police while praying outside the Capitol and never entered the building, are due to stand trial in August.
Don Haider-Markel, a professor of political science at the University of Kansas and an expert on extremism, said the festival likely had “a pretty narrow appeal.”
“But I really think it’s further evidence of the far-right type of radicalization,” he said. “It allows participants to essentially publicly express their identity. This not only reinforces these identities, but it can also tend to further radicalize people.
Haider-Markel noted an incident last week in Washington, DC, in which Taylor Taranto, a man wanted in connection with the Capitol riot, was arrested near former President Barack Obama’s home. Authorities found two firearms, hundreds of cartridges and a machete in Taranto’s nearby van.
“I think we’ll see more and more incidents like this, where we have individuals who are part of this larger movement splitting up and deciding, ‘Hey, I’m going to do something,'” a- he declared.
Oath Keepers founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, whose 18-year prison sentence in May is the longest to date, is also listed as a speaker for the weekend event. His first name is misspelled on the flyer.
Rhodes, of Texas, was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the capitol breach. The government said he and others plotted to violently disrupt the legal transfer of presidential power on January 6, organizing teams to transport firearms and ammunition to Washington and bring in equipment, weapons and supplies. paramilitaries in the Capitol with the aim of taking control of the land. and the building.
Another speaker at the festival is Micki Witthoeft, mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed as she tried to climb through a shattered window onto a door leading to the President’s lobby as police evacuated the members of Congress from the House of Commons. Since her daughter’s death, Witthoeft has become the attorney for the Jan. 6 defendants, attending rallies, hearings and prayer vigils outside the DC jail where many are being held.
George Tanios, who is also due to speak, was charged in March 2021 with providing pepper spray to Julian Khater, who used it to assault three police officers. One of the officers was Brian Sicknick, who was injured in the riot, collapsed later that day, and died the following day of natural causes.
Tanios, who allegedly did not cause Sicknick’s death, faced felony charges including rioting, assaulting law enforcement officers and obstructing an official congressional process. He pleaded guilty in July 2022 to two counts of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a building or restricted area.
Tanios, of West Virginia, was held for five months and sentenced in January to time served, 12 months supervised release and 100 hours of community service. Khater, of New Jersey, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting, resisting or obstructing officers with a dangerous weapon, admitting that he sprayed three officers in the face – including Sicknick – incapacitating them during at least 20 minutes. He was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.
The Jan. 6 defendants and their attorneys misused the name “patriot,” said Daryl Johnson, a former senior homeland terrorism analyst at the Department of Homeland Security.
“They’re trying to create the historical vision that these people did the right thing, that they were the patriots who stood up against government corruption, that they were there to save our Constitution,” Johnson said. “These people believe that God is on their side, and it is these righteous holders of the truth who protect our country.
“That’s why they call it the Truth and Light Rally. Light means you are enlightened and others are not. And celebrating those people who participated in the riot by calling them patriots is keeping that fervor alive for the 2024 election.”