Woman Known as 'MAGA Granny' Says She's 'Absolutely Not' Accepting Trump's Jan. 6 Pardon: 'I Was in a Cult'

Mar. 15, 2025

Pamela Hemphill is seen on the steps of the Idaho Capitol in 2020.Photo:David Staats/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty

David Staats/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty

An Idaho woman who has been dubbed “MAGA granny” for her role inthe Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitolhas been offered clemency from PresidentDonald Trump— but her reaction to the pardon is different from most insurrectionists.

Pamela Hemphill said on Tuesday, Jan. 21 — just one day after Trump’s inauguration day, when he ordered over 1,500 people accused or convicted of taking part in the Capitol attackto be granted clemency or their sentences to be communed— that she is rejecting her pardon.

According to theStatesman, Hemphill posted video of herself entering the Capitol on social media on Jan. 6, 2021, and she pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol Building in 2022. She was sentenced to two months in jail, three years of probation and had to pay a $500 fine, the outlet added.

Pro-Trump rioters storm the U.S. Capitol during a Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.Samuel Corum/Getty

Hemphill and her attorney are planning to file a letter of rejection in regards to Trump’s pardon.

“It’s an insult to the Capitol Police, to the rule of law and to the nation,” Hemphill theNew York Times.“If I accept a pardon, I’m continuing their propaganda, their gaslighting and all their falsehoods they’re putting out there about Jan. 6.”

Per theTimes,Hemphill has said that she does not support Trump anymore and does not believe that the 2020 election was stolen after therapy and an experience with other Jan. 6 attackers on X.

According to Hemphill, she began speaking with others at the Capitol that day on theElon Musk-owned social media site and began questioning what others were saying about the attack there, per theStatesman.

“They started talking about supporting people that had actually been violent, and I wasn’t happy about that,” Hemphill said, according to the outlet. “I thought we were going to stand up for anything that was government overreach or something like that, not people that are in jail for harming officers.”

“We are not victims, we were volunteers,” Hemphill told theStatesman,adding that she thinks of herself as having been in a “cult.”

“Nobody went up to them with a gun to their head and said, ‘You’re going to go break a window. You’re going to go destroy property. You’re going to push an officer.’ They had a choice,” she said.

Footage of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.Samuel Corum/Getty

Samuel Corum/Getty

TheTimesalso reports that Hemphill may face some legal challenges in rejecting the pardon. Rejecting an offer from the U.S. president for clemency is rarely ever done, and in the few cases that it has, judges have sided with the president.

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Hemphill told theTimesthat she looks back on her time as a Trump supporter and an advocate for the “Stop the Steal” movement as a lack of judgment.

“I got my critical thinking back and started doing my own research, which I’m guilty of not doing back then because they gaslight you so much," Hemphill told theStatesman. “It’s really weird when you come out of a cult. It’s like you look back and you go, what was I thinking?”

source: people.com