Freed January 6 protester： I prayed inside the Capitol for the good of our country
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Summary
Leo Kelly has been out of prison for a little over a year and a half. In this interview, he talks about his release from prison, the impact of the Supreme Court ruling allowing him to serve less than a year in prison, and what he is looking forward to now that President Trump will likely pardon him.
Transcript
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This is the guy who had the worst injustice in human history perpetrated against him on the
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cross, right? He no way deserved that. Not even close. And you know what he said?
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Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do.
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Hello, my friends. We, with President Trump's re-election, are in a time again when we can
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consider whatever happened to those J6ers and what happened to that whole thing. They were
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vilified by the mainstream media, by the former administration in such a way that you'd think
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they were insurrectionists, haters of America. And yet we know they were lovers of America. And
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President Trump has said he will likely pardon them. Now, one of those people who we met early
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on in this process was named Leo Kelly. In fact, LifeSite interviewed him after the incident and
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before his being imprisoned. He was one of hundreds of actual arrestees and imprisoned. Now that sounds
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stunning. Hundreds? Oh yes, hundreds. Some of them sentenced to over 11 years. So, Leo has been
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in prison for a month less than a year, only because of a Supreme Court ruling, which we're going to get
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into. But one of the very stunning things about Leo Kelly is that while in prison, he had this amazing
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letter to prisoners, his fellow prisoners, which of course we loved to broadcast for him through LifeSite
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and reach the whole wide world. It's about loving Christ, suffering with him, and the beauty of being
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able to suffer like Christ, with Christ, in Christ, and for Christ. Stay tuned for this interview with
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Leo Kelly. For U.S. residents, creating will has never been easier. Thanks to My Legacy Will, an online
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LifeSite News in your will. Visit mylegacywill.com slash LifeSite News. Thank you for your support,
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and may God bless you. Leo Kelly, so good to be with you. Yeah, great to be here. Thank you so much.
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Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
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and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. So, Leo, it's been quite a while. We've been praying for you at LifeSite
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every day since your possible arrest, and so you've been a daily topic for us for a long time now.
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It's so good to see you, well, virtually in person. Jim Hale did that oh-so-famous interview
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that was, it actually went all around the world millions and millions and millions of times,
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and clips were used in very many news broadcasts. But I wanted to ask you, first of all,
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you've just been out for a little while now, since October, I believe, and how are you feeling right
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now? Well, I mean, when you just get out of prison, it doesn't matter what happens. Everything's good
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news, and everything's in. It's a joyful time. So, I'm still a little bit on that. I've actually
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been surprised and just thankful for the grace of God about how natural everything felt. I've got a
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really strong family, a strong church community around me, and God has blessed me with just people
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who welcomed me back, who missed me, who prayed for me. All of you guys at LifeSite, I thank you so much
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for praying for me. And it's been very natural to step back into just life. So, I'm thankful for that.
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We just had the re-election of President Trump. That must have been quite something for you as
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well. Donald Trump being re-elected was a big... I'm very joyful and very relieved, because it's
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just... I didn't know what to expect going forward with Biden or Kamala Harris in charge of the Justice
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Department. And in my experience, they can kind of do whatever they want. So, I just thank God for
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that. I take it as a reprieve from him where, you know, we the people in America, we can show that
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we're faithful to him, and God will bless the nation who is faithful to him. So, looking forward
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Indeed. It's one of the things I just want to run over very quickly. What happened in that first
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incident? People can go back and watch that interview that you did with LifeSite's Jim Hale
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at the time. But, I mean, basically, you walked in with a huge crowd through an open door,
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and you prayed in the Capitol. You didn't commit any violence or anything like that. And you're
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praying for America, feeling that it was... that the election was unjust. Any other thoughts there
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Yeah, I had walked through... you know, walked in an open door to the Capitol. I, you know,
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found out later through some other videos and stuff that it had been opened by a man who had
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smashed the window. And he unlocked... he pushed the latch of the door open, but somebody from the
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inside had unlocked the magnetic lock, which, I mean, this is the U.S. Capitol building. It's
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obviously a very secure facility. So, you know, there's some cooperation there with this guy on
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the outside and the people on the inside. But for the most part, we walked in. It was a really
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passionate crowd. People were yelling. Some people were ransacking offices and stuff. And I actually
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intervened at one point and told them to stop. You know, that was presented at trial and used as
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evidence to convict me of one of my misdemeanor trespassing charges, because I had to go into
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an office to do that, which was a specially protected office under the law. I didn't know.
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I figured I was doing a good thing, you know, telling people to stop ransacking an office.
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But the U.S. Attorney's Office disagreed. And so, yeah, we walked in through. We ended up
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on the Senate chamber floor and somebody said, you know, hey, we ought to pray. And that was,
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you know, I was basically just reacting to everything throughout that day. You know,
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you don't really think in a moment like that. I just wanted to see what was going on
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from what I discerned as a like a very important moment in our country's history.
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But someone said, hey, you know, we ought to pray. And so that got through to me. And I was like,
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that's really what we need right now. Like, because we are in total disarray as a nation. And,
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you know, whatever I was upset about in the way our elections are going, how the government was acting
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and all that. I know very well and remain convinced that it's just an expression of
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generations of us leaving God, you know. And what do we expect? Except, you know, that will lead to
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hardship, that will lead to oppression and slavery and all these things. Like, that's laid out for us
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over and over again by God. We see it in the examples of history and the examples of the Bible
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and the teachings of Jesus. And so we prayed. And that was, you know, to me, the most important
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thing I did that day. And, you know, we interceded on behalf of our nation for just mercy.
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A lot of people are stunned to hear that there are so many arrestees, that there are so many
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imprisoned over this J6 incident. So many like you who weren't violent, weren't, didn't break down
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a door or anything to get in, just walked in and just prayed, interceded for America, looked around.
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How many have you seen? And I'd like to ask you about your interaction with them, because I know
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you've had some. I haven't met a lot of them, but I was in a cell in FMC Rochester, Rochester Federal
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Prison, where I was with one of them. And it's just so awful because, you know, you don't know the
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whole story and you don't even realize, I didn't realize how infiltrated my mind had become with
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sort of the main narrative, because I had assumed, well, the people who are charged with violence
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against police and things like that, well, they sort of deserved it. And, you know, there, I
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definitely saw people who were doing things they shouldn't have been doing. But anyway, this guy in
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my cell, he's got a whole story on Epoch Times did a bunch of reporting on him and he was down in the
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tunnel where all the violence was and stuff. But one of the things he did, he was charged with two
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counts of some kind of assaulting or something of an officer. One of them, he pled guilty to and
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said, yeah, I did that. And, you know, I really shouldn't have. And it was awful. And, you know,
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that my bad, basically. The other one, the other officer testified at trial that he did not assault
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him, but they still charged him with the crime and the jury still convicted him. So it's just
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like there's no one seeking justice in this situation. Like the motto of our Justice Department is
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Latin. But what it means is, you know, the one who prosecutes on behalf of justice. But they're just
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not doing that. It's all like I've heard someone described as they're drunk on January 6th. And
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that's really what it's. They're just like intoxicated with this like vicious hatred for
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for no reason. Like, what did we do to you? You know what I mean?
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And what has been going on in the public mind is is quite something. We had a similar thing in
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Canada with the truckers. Somehow it was parlayed into some kind of insurrection,
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something against the Canadian people, against the state.
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And yet it was exactly the opposite for so many of you who were in there.
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I want to ask you, too, about this beautiful message that you conveyed to your fellow prisoners,
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one of deep, deep love for Jesus Christ and reaching out to him and identifying with him.
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Tell us about that, if you will. And what what also inspired you to do that?
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I am 100 percent loyal to Jesus Christ. He is salvation. He is protection. He is healing.
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He is deliverance. He is he is everything that I hope to be. And and by his grace, am I'm so
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thankful for. And a lot of the things, you know, what he says about how we win, how we conquer the
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world, how do we overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony? So what that
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tells me is if I'm following Jesus, this is the guy who had the worst injustice in human history
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perpetrated against him on the cross. Right. He no way deserved that. Not even close. And you know
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what he said? Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do. So if that's good enough for him,
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it's good enough for me. That was my rationale. And I just recognize that, like, OK, I think God can
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work through this in my experience. And if he can do that for me and vindicate me and save my nation
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through through my suffering, at least I'll play my part faithfully, then that is available to every
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one of the January Sixers. Like all we have to do is turn our eyes off of ourselves, stop whining about
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the injustice and say, I am going to be a faithful servant of God. I you know, this nation is born out
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of the principles that we're all created equal and we're endowed by our creator with, you know,
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the rights that we all know. And the reason that governments are instituted among men is to secure
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those rights. So if that God, the creator did all that, but yet gave up his rights and that's how he
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got legitimate authority over the world back in his hands, then I'm willing to participate in his
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same methodology and just trust him that he will be the one that vindicates me and takes care of the
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things that my heart is really concerned over, like justice and peace and prosperity and things
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like that in America, you know. Pope Pius XI said men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom
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of Christ. And he urged that the faithful give public honor to Christ the king so that individuals
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and states would submit once more to the rule of their savior. And that is why LifeSite News is
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raising up the image of Christ the king across the United States. And you can help us reach millions
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more. Please pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com slash Christ is king.
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What does it feel like to be imprisoned? The fact that it's unjustly is a matter too, but you're in
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there. What is it? Is it scary? Were you scared? How did that work for you?
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Well, I can testify to the truth that God keeps in perfect peace those whose minds are set on him.
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And I will not say, I did get fearful. I did get anxious. I got depressed. But every one of those
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times, it was because my mind was either casting backward towards something or forward to something
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to worry about. If my mind was on Jesus, I was kept in perfect peace. So I can attest to his
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faithfulness in that. The prison that I was in, it was a federal federal medical center in Rochester,
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Minnesota. It's a low security thing. So they're not most of the people there or all of the people
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there are there because they are deemed to be a low violence risk. They're not really a threat.
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So there wasn't a lot of time locked in a specific cell. I was able to go outside. There's a track I
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could walk around. I could exercise. There was a weight pile. They would have intramural sports
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leagues. So it's really difficult to be in prison. And it's dehumanizing because you can just be told
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what to do at any moment. And the guards just have total power over you. But for me, I was respectful
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to them. For the most part, I got along. God just was faithful to me in that he never gave me anything
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that I couldn't handle. And not even really close. He was really good to me in that way. And I got to do
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interesting things too. I got an opportunity to work in the plumbing shop. So the prison's a big
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facility. There's a lot of toilets and sinks and things like that. So they have a little inmate
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workforce that helps with that. And I got to do that. And I'm not a blue collar worker, but I learned
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to be a blue collar worker. And I learned some valuable skills. And what I tried to do is just
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be faithful to God and make the best of it. And he blessed me in that. Weirdly enough, despite the
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fact that you were in already for a year less a month and were released, they're trying to put you
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back in. Can you unpack that for us? The way I was released was a total shock to me. I knew the
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Supreme Court had issued this ruling, so I was no longer a felon. We had made a joint motion. My
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attorney and the U.S. attorney's office had made a joint motion to vacate the felony charge per the
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Supreme Court ruling. So that was like, everybody was good with that. What that did was it took my
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sentence from 30 months down to 12 months. When you're in prison, you can get credits for this
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thing called the First Step Act, which if you're in their program, you get 15 days removed off your
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sentence for every 30 days you're in the program. So I had been doing that since day one. So I had a 12
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month sentence with credits that rewound my release date all the way back to June. So finally,
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the Bureau of Prisons figured that out. I had no notice. They just called me over to the secretary's
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office that morning and said, how soon can your family be here? Because we need to get you out of
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here. So they released me. I'm free as far as I know. It sounds good. Like we're ready to just let
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it go. Well, then the U.S. attorney's office in Washington reaches out and says, oh, no, this is a
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mistake. They shouldn't have done that, which, by the way, is the same argument I believe they used
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to keep Steve Bannon in. They just they just denied him his his first step back credits, which is just
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illegal. But right. The lot like if you're in power, the law is only as good as the people in power who
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will protect it. So anyway, they said, oh, this is this is incorrect. It's a wrong calculation. We want
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to re-sentence Leo. Well, the court, the appeals court did not remand my case for re-sentencing.
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So there is no re-sentencing. It's just my sentence is over and they just have to deal with
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that now. So the question is, are you are they going to continue an illegal path to try to put
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me back in jail, which they may do and they may succeed in doing right. Like probably not beyond
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when Trump takes office. But like in my experience, like the law isn't like going to protect me in
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Washington. Like they just generally pick what they want to do and then find a legal rationale to do it.
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And that's just how they work. And I don't know if you want to get into this, but there has been
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a lot of rumor that there was a lot of instigators in this who might have been a sort of planned
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actors trying to instigate something. Did you see any evidence of that before and after or during
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your imprisonment? Did you get any wind of that? I mean, the biggest thing that was an intimate
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example for me is that guy who at trial, I found out had smashed the window and reached his hand in
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and opened the door that I ended up going through. He. To me, clearly was working with someone on the
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inside of the building who had ability to unlock those the magnetic locks that were that had to
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be unlocked before that door could be opened. Another weird thing I saw him doing when when
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we're inside the building, he actually walked up and pulled a police officer to the side and had a
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side conversation. What he said, I don't know who knows, but like he had some level of relationship
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where he felt like they could have a side conversation and then just go back about their
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business. So, I mean, there's all sorts of weird stuff to me. Like, I mean, I, the evil that is in
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the FBI, like I would, they, I definitely would do something like this. I mean, especially combined
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with all the other information we know about, you know, Nancy Pelosi turning down like the security
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forces and stuff. Like to me, there's like, this just doesn't happen. Uh, if, if the government
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doesn't want it to happen. So, but I mean, that's what I'm sharing is my firsthand evidence. Um,
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there's much, much more out there, which I'm sure the, uh, the, the viewers of this show know very
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well. That guy who broke the window, did he ever end up in jail? This is one of the unfortunate things
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for defendants in Washington, DC. So I'm going through trial. We're looking at that evidence
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before we're about to go to trial and I'm talking to my attorneys about it. And I'm like,
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well, shouldn't we get them to identify this guy and tell us who he is and like work down this?
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And they kind of looked at me and said, well, Leo, that would imply that the government is in on this.
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And I was like, well, yeah, it's, um, but, but they just wouldn't make that argument.
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We're right. Like they, they, and, and because in Washington, DC, the government is God to these
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people. I don't hold any grudges or anything against my attorneys or any, anything like that,
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but just the way they approached it. And, and like they, the most, the worst thing you can do
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as a U S uh, as an attorney in Washington, DC is offend a judge. There's like the, the objectives
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of like justice and peace and things like that are way down the list, like courtroom etiquette,
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offending a judge, like things like that are by far their biggest concerns. And so, you know,
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like, that's just like, that's a really broken system. And what am I directive from God? Like I will
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love, I'll love my enemies. And I don't even, you know, consider my attorneys necessarily to be my
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enemies, but like, I'm not a grudge holder, but there's, there is a system there that is totally
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broken with no one seeking justice. And, um, God will bring that to account. And I expect,
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you know, one of the ways God will do that is through the Trump administration.
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What are your hopes right now for America? Because we're, we've gone through this period of,
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of just, I don't know, it's, it's like a civil war being fought on one side. Um, and it's, uh,
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it's very much the use of the, the powers that be to persecute political enemies. Um, but what are
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your hopes now for America? We come back under the bond of brotherhood, under the principles that
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united us to begin with, right? We're the place that is united by the covenant that says we hold
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these truths to be self-evident. We're all created equal. We're endowed by our creator with inalienable
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rights that are including a life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The reason why we have a
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government is to protect those rights and the legitimacy of that, of our government rests on
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consent of the governed. So if that, if we all can agree on that and take our own personal
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responsibility to say, you know what, I have to be not just a selfish citizen, but I got to serve
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my community. I've got to bring, uh, peace and love and joy and, uh, gentleness and strength and all
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these things to my cubicle, uh, to my church, to my school, to like every, every part of society. We have
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to do this as a people. And that's the only way our government system is designed to work is with
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engaged people and we, we can do it right. Like God, we never had a chance as a nation without
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God, right? The first great awakening in the 1740s was the people that grew up and like shaped in
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America in 1776 and they were our founding fathers. So God is faithful and he like will respond to us
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and he wants to bless us. And we, you know, like, well, we just, we got to be willing to do it his way.
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We got to be willing to humble ourselves and turn away from our wickedness and say,
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God, you're the one we want. You're, you're the God of America. And, you know, I'm here to testify
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to that. And, uh, I think if we are faithful to him, God's people are faithful. We are the shining
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light on the hill and, and, and he, he will respond. I'm convinced. The American constitution's
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framed under God. And so without him, we can do nothing both literally, but also in the American
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context. I remember when president Trump made that super famous address in Poland and, uh, he recalled
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their own emancipation from under communism where they stunned the government when, uh, John Paul II
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hadn't visited because their chant was, we want God. And it was so stunning to hear Trump recount that.
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And the people in Poland go insane because they loved that the American president was there reminding
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them of this great moment in their own history where they shouted and they shouted again, we want
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God, we want God. It is the only way, uh, we've been talking on our show about, um, the need for
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the people of every land to give obeisance, to give real ownership and rulership to the one true God,
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to Jesus Christ. And without that, you can't be, in fact, God will only bless a land that will turn to
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him and him in truth. So it is about Jesus Christ. And, and yes, I know there's other different
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religions and so on. The problem is there's only one true religion. That's why we have,
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especially in America, you know, we, we say Christ is King and yes, that causes all sorts of
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controversy, but it's nonetheless true. And what I love also about America is you've got this great
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Latin American tradition. So they have in English, Christ is King. And in Spanish, they have Viva
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Cristo Rey. Leo, final thoughts for us. Just God bless you guys. Thank you so much for, uh,
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being faithful and, and in the profession of journalism. Like one of the things that journalists
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in a way, um, you, you guys kind of have the office of, of a prophet in a, in a way in the,
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in the Bible, like, cause you are the ones who speak the things that are important. And so I just
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thank you guys for being faithful to your calling. And it's been a long road. God bless you guys.
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And I'm just, I'm, I'm looking forward to what is next because it's, it's, it feels like is that
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there's a new day dawning. Leo Kelly. Thank you so much for joining us. God bless you. It's been
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great to pray for you every day. And, uh, we will continue that to see how God unfolds his will in
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your life. Thank you, my friend. Bye. And God bless all of you. And we'll see you next time.
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Hi, everyone. This is John Henry Weston for LifeSite News. We hope you found this video
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