Visitor submit by Patriot Authorized Protection
The freezing windowless 6×8 metal field was barely vast sufficient for a person to stretch his arms. No home windows. No clock. The one measure of time was the meager flicker of chilly fluorescent gentle above—and the suffocating silence that crept in like a fog.
For 17 months, Zach Rehl lived in that cell on the Alexandria Detention Facility, not as a convicted assassin or violent extremist, however as a Marine Corps veteran and father.
He then endured diesel remedy, starved, confined in chains and field cuffed on a bus for days, whereas transferred to FCI Petersburg, a medium safety jail the place he was housed alongside murderers, rapists and baby predators.
Responsible of nothing greater than strolling peacefully by means of the U.S. Capitol constructing for 20 minutes on January 6, 2021, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “seditious conspiracy,” a cost normally reserved for enemy combatants or warlords.
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Now, even after his commutation by President Donald Trump, Rehl stays shackled — this time by a system that refuses to launch him from the chains of a conviction that was politically engineered, nothing wanting a human rights disaster on U.S. soil — within the so-called “freest nation on this planet.”
“I assumed I used to be going to go completely insane in the direction of the top,” Rehl informed The Gateway Pundit in an unique interview, his voice heavy with exhaustion. “You get up each day and your thoughts simply splits gazing metal doorways.
“There’s nothing to do. One hour a day, they allow you to out to microwave some meals or bathe. That’s it. No rec, no daylight. You’re freezing, you’re alone, you’re dropping your thoughts — and also you didn’t even do something violent. You’re trapped on this field, realizing you’re getting railroaded, and there’s nobody coming to assist.”
The scene of his life as we speak continues to be grim. Even after a commutation from President Trump, Zach walks free in title solely — his life decimated, his profession erased, and his future unsure.
His spouse, six months pregnant on the time of his arrest, now watches helplessly because the mortgage slips by means of their fingers. Navy advantages — earned by means of honorable service — have been stripped.
Earlier than January 6, Zach was constructing a promising future.
However now, with the stain of a federal conviction for “seditious conspiracy,” each license Rehl fought for over a decade to earn within the monetary discipline is suspended indefinitely, and with no pardon in sight, Rehl is successfully unemployable.
“I spent ten years getting my levels, getting licensed and licenses, and simply as I used to be about to launch my very own monetary agency, the whole lot was pulled,” Rehl stated. “I can’t work within the discipline I skilled for. We’re mainly broke.”
“I’ve zero earnings. Nothing. I’m watching our checking account dwindle. My spouse’s been managing the payments on a shoestring funds. However the reality is — we’re working out of time. We’re about to lose our residence. That is the one residence my daughter has ever identified.
“I served my nation. I acquired an honorable discharge. I earned these advantages. I don’t come from cash. I labored my method up as a result of I used to be good. I used to be good at math. I used to be lastly about to interrupt out of poverty. Now, I’m caught.”
Zach Rehl isn’t alone. He and his co-defendants, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Dominic Pezzola, are amongst 14 January 6 defendants whose sentences have been commuted however not pardoned — a important distinction.
Regardless of his religion in President Trump, the burden of the commutation — fairly than a full pardon — hangs heavy. With out a pardon, Rehl’s legal document stays intact. He’s nonetheless labeled a terrorist. He nonetheless lives beneath the shadow of felonies that forestall him from seeing VA medical doctors and even dropping his daughter off at college.
“The commutation saved me from extra jail, however it didn’t save my life,” he stated bluntly. “Folks say, ‘Nicely, you’re free now, be grateful.’ However how free am I if I can’t work, can’t present for my household, and I’m nonetheless on a listing that claims I’m a terrorist?”
“The fees are nonetheless on my document. I’m nonetheless listed as a terrorist. As soon as my daughter goes to highschool, I received’t be capable to even decide her up. The federal government says I can’t be close to college grounds.”
The price of his authorized struggle, he estimates, has exceeded $200,000 — and climbing. The Treasury Division has demanded he pay again his navy advantages, with curiosity. There is no such thing as a security internet. No attraction for clemency. Whereas pardoned January prisoners are suing the federal government for the injustice they endured, Rehl continues to be combating to clear his title and might barely afford authorized charges for the attraction. No path ahead except a pardon comes.
“We’re going to lose our home,” he stated. “This was our first household residence. It’s all we now have left.”
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For Rehl, the injustice started lengthy earlier than sentencing. He remembers the early morning raid by armed federal brokers at his residence — a scene he describes as one thing out of a dystopian thriller.
It was simply after 8 a.m. when the knock got here. Rehl’s pregnant spouse answered the door.
Inside seconds, closely armed federal brokers stormed up the steps. Ten males in tactical gear, rifles raised, flooded their residence like they have been breaching a terrorist compound.
Upstairs, Zach threw on garments as quick as he may, coronary heart pounding, adrenaline surging. He may already hear the brokers yelling his title. Moments later, he was in handcuffs, stuffed behind an unmarked automotive. One agent posed for a photograph in entrance of the home, grinning like he’d received a prize.
“Ten guys with AR-15s barged in. My spouse was six months pregnant. I used to be dragged out like a fugitive. Later, one of many brokers even posed for a photograph in entrance of our home prefer it was a trophy hunt.”
Held with out bail—regardless of no expenses of violence — Rehl says he was tossed into solitary confinement with no entry to daylight, recent air, or ample healthcare.
“They gave us one small blanket within the useless of winter. I’d sleep curled in a ball, my breath trapped beneath the blanket to remain heat,” he stated. “I’d get up freezing as a result of the blanket would slip off my head. I needed to pull it again over and simply breathe–breath to remain heat. That’s not a technique to dwell. That’s not a technique to deal with a human being.”
He described the deep psychological toll: the paranoia, the social withdrawal, the PTSD that also grips him as we speak. Even after launch, he avoids the surface world. Social abilities deteriorated. Melancholy and nervousness persist.
“I don’t even prefer to go exterior,” he confessed. “I sit in my home all day. My social abilities are shot. I get nervousness simply strolling out the door. I used to go to the VA for psychological well being help. Now I’ve to pay out of pocket for the whole lot. I can’t afford it. I can’t get the assistance I would like.
“The Bureau of Prisons director herself stated nobody needs to be in solitary over 30 days. I used to be there 17 months.”
Rehl isn’t asking for sympathy. He’s asking for the reality. He’s asking for equity. And he asks for an opportunity.
“I’m not wealthy. I by no means was. I labored arduous to climb out of poverty, to construct one thing for my household,” he stated. “That was all taken from me in a single day, with out a honest trial, with a media circus portray me as one thing I’m not.”
“I didn’t commit seditious conspiracy. I didn’t damage anybody. I didn’t break something. I walked round a constructing. But I acquired handled worse than rapists and murderers. This isn’t justice. It’s political punishment.”
He blames the Division of Justice for what he calls a “kangaroo court” fueled by politics, not justice. Whereas incarcerated, he described the present trial to The Gateway Pundit, warning it was akin to what goes on in a communist nation, and for talking out, U.S. District Decide Timothy Kelly scolded him and added terror enhancements to his sentence. He describes attorneys who, with uncommon exception, had little interest in combating — women and men, he says, ideologically against the very individuals they have been defending.
“They handled us like we have been already responsible. Even a few of the protection attorneys have been overtly anti-Trump, anti-January 6. They didn’t care about us,” he stated.
A person of self-discipline, navy honor, and entrepreneurial ambition is now somebody pleading for a pardon — not for pity, however for the flexibility to dwell once more.
“This isn’t simply affecting me,” Rehl stated. “It’s killing me bodily. It’s killing me mentally. And it’s tearing my household aside.”
By way of all of it, Zach Rehl stays unbroken in spirit. He nonetheless believes. He nonetheless fights. And he nonetheless proudly wears a tattoo of President Trump on his arm — a everlasting image of hope and loyalty. However make no mistake: he’s hurting. Badly.
To President Trump, Rehl’s message is obvious: “You already know we didn’t get a good trial. You stated it your self. Please, simply end what you began. Don’t let this destroy the whole lot I’ve tried to construct. I would like that pardon, sir. I would like it to dwell once more.”
And to America — particularly those that nonetheless imagine that is the freest nation on this planet—Zach Rehl is a painful reminder that freedom, as soon as misplaced, is just not simply reclaimed.
For those who imagine in equity… in case you imagine in redemption… in case you imagine in America — then assist Zach Rehl rebuild what was taken from him. Donate, share his story, and demand justice.
***SUPPORT ZACH REHL’S LEGAL DEFENSE HERE***
As a result of if this may occur to Zach, it might occur to anybody. Zach Rehl was handled like a warfare legal within the land he fought to defend.
And within the “freest nation on Earth,” that ought to terrify us all.
