Missouri rally to support Jan. 6 defendants. Critics say it’s ‘celebrating the violence’

A southwest Missouri town is the site of a gathering this weekend that organizers say will honor and raise money for those charged in Capitol riot cases.

Called the J6 Truth and Light Freedom Festival, the event runs Friday through Sunday in Rogersville and is supposed to feature numerous speakers, live and via Zoom. Some are facing multiple felony charges in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and one recently was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

“An amazing weekend of love and support for our J6 community!” says a flyer being circulated about the event. “Bring your RV, tent, lawn chairs and the whole family for this annual gathering of the Jan6 community!”

But those who monitor extremist groups say the festival raises concerns about the potential for future violence.

“These events are really important to watch,” said Chuck Tanner, research director at the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which has tracked extremist activity for decades. “You see at them the contours of a movement stretching from the halls of government to far-right publications and groups – and a movement that continues to frame January 6 insurrectionists as martyrs and build out a framework for another far right, nationalist insurrection.”

Rogersville is a town of nearly 4,000 about 19 miles southeast of Springfield. Seven of the 28 Missouri Capitol riot defendants are from the Springfield area. Organizers held a similar event in Rogersville last year.

The festival is “a closed event only for J6’ers and their families,” the promotional material says. Tickets are $150 for a three-day family pass and $75 for one person. A daily pass is $37.50 per person.

“Any J6 Defendant previously or currently under indictment is absolutely free!” the material says. “All funds go right back to the J6 Community.”

A June 27 tweet from Sedition Hunters, a group of online researchers that has helped the FBI identify rioters, called the festival an “event celebrating the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 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 felonies, including carrying a loaded weapon onto Capitol grounds.

In the video, Nicole Reffitt said the Sedition Hunters “cannot believe that we would have a festival to get together.”

“They want to say that we’re glorifying criminality and all of these things,” she said. “That’s not what we’re doing. It’s gonna be a mostly peaceful Truth and Light Festival.”

Sponsors of the festival 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 of Jan6_Detainees and Kevin and Mary Caldwell of American Patriot Relief, a Texas-based organization whose goal is “to be the community for our brothers and sisters under attack, to aid, assist and educate our community with legal and emotional counsel, provide financial support and resources, and to be boots on the ground help with day to day needs,” the group’s website says.

The organization says it is raising money to help defendants’ family members attend their court hearings, visit them in jail and care for their children. It also has started an “Adopt a J6’er” program through which people can send commissary funds to a defendant who is incarcerated.

Two of its founders, Mark and Jalise Middleton, are listed as speakers for the festival. Both were indicted in May 2021 in connection with the Capitol breach and face numerous charges, including multiple felonies: assaulting, impeding or interfering with officers or employees; civil disorder; and obstruction of justice.

The couple, who have said they were attacked by police as they prayed outside the Capitol and never went in the building, are scheduled to go to trial in August.

Don Haider-Markel, a political science professor at the University of Kansas and expert on extremism, said the festival likely has “a pretty narrow appeal.”

“But I definitely think it’s further evidence of the sort of radicalization of the far right,” he said. “It allows participants to essentially publicly express their identity. That not only reinforces those identities, but it also can tend to radicalize people further.”

Haider-Markel noted an incident last week in Washington, D.C., in which Taylor Taranto, a man from Pasco, Washington, wanted in connection with the Capitol riot, was arrested near former President Barack Obama’s home. Authorities found two guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a machete in Taranto’s nearby van.

“I think we’ll see more and more incidents like that, where we have individuals who are part of this larger movement who sort of spin off and decide, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go do something,’ ” he said.

Oath Keepers founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, whose 18-year prison sentence in May is the longest to be handed down so far, also is 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 lawful transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, organizing teams to transport firearms and ammunition into Washington and bring paramilitary gear, weapons and supplies to the Capitol in an effort to take control of the grounds and the building.

Another festival speaker is Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot as she tried to climb through a broken window on a door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby while police were evacuating members of Congress from the House Chamber. Since her daughter’s death, Witthoeft has become an advocate for Jan. 6 defendants, attending rallies, court hearings and prayer vigils outside the D.C. jail where many are being held.

George Tanios, who also is scheduled 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 during the riot, collapsed later that day and died the following day of natural causes.

Tanios, who was not alleged to have caused Sicknick’s death, faced felony charges including rioting, assaulting law enforcement officers and obstructing an official proceeding of Congress. He pleaded guilty in July 2022 to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.

Tanios, of West Virginia, was in custody for five months and sentenced in January to time served, 12 months of supervised release and 100 hours of community service. Khater, of New Jersey, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, acknowledging he sprayed three officers in the face – including Sicknick – incapacitating them for at least 20 minutes. He was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.

The Jan. 6 defendants and their advocates have hijacked the “patriot” name, said Daryl Johnson, a former senior analyst for domestic terrorism with the Department of Homeland Security.

“They’re trying to create the historical view that these people did the right thing, that they were the patriots that stood up to the government corruption, that they were there to save our Constitution,” Johnson said. “These people believe that God’s on their side, and they are these righteous truth-holders that are protecting our country.

“That’s why they’re calling it the Truth and Light Rally. Light means you’re enlightened, and the other people aren’t. And celebrating these people that participated in the riot by calling them patriots is keeping that fervor alive for the 2024 election.”