The John-Henry Westen Show - Freed January 6 protester： I prayed inside the Capitol for the good of our country

00:00:00.000 This is the guy who had the worst injustice in human history perpetrated against him on the

00:00:04.500 cross, right? He no way deserved that. Not even close. And you know what he said?

00:00:10.420 Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do.

00:00:22.020 Hello, my friends. We, with President Trump's re-election, are in a time again when we can

00:00:28.260 consider whatever happened to those J6ers and what happened to that whole thing. They were 1.00

00:00:33.320 vilified by the mainstream media, by the former administration in such a way that you'd think

00:00:39.380 they were insurrectionists, haters of America. And yet we know they were lovers of America. And

00:00:45.540 President Trump has said he will likely pardon them. Now, one of those people who we met early

00:00:52.120 on in this process was named Leo Kelly. In fact, LifeSite interviewed him after the incident and

00:00:59.160 before his being imprisoned. He was one of hundreds of actual arrestees and imprisoned. Now that sounds

00:01:08.480 stunning. Hundreds? Oh yes, hundreds. Some of them sentenced to over 11 years. So, Leo has been

00:01:17.860 in prison for a month less than a year, only because of a Supreme Court ruling, which we're going to get

00:01:24.340 into. But one of the very stunning things about Leo Kelly is that while in prison, he had this amazing

00:01:32.500 letter to prisoners, his fellow prisoners, which of course we loved to broadcast for him through LifeSite

00:01:39.100 and reach the whole wide world. It's about loving Christ, suffering with him, and the beauty of being

00:01:45.400 able to suffer like Christ, with Christ, in Christ, and for Christ. Stay tuned for this interview with

00:01:50.840 Leo Kelly. For U.S. residents, creating will has never been easier. Thanks to My Legacy Will, an online

00:01:59.080 platform free of charge, you can now create your own will and choose to include LifeSite News in it,

00:02:05.260 specify where your funeral will take place, the number of masses to be offered for your soul,

00:02:10.240 and how your estate will be distributed. We would be deeply grateful if you remembered

00:02:15.240 LifeSite News in your will. Visit mylegacywill.com slash LifeSite News. Thank you for your support,

00:02:22.980 and may God bless you. Leo Kelly, so good to be with you. Yeah, great to be here. Thank you so much.

00:02:29.180 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

00:02:34.680 and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. So, Leo, it's been quite a while. We've been praying for you at LifeSite

00:02:41.960 every day since your possible arrest, and so you've been a daily topic for us for a long time now.

00:02:50.800 It's so good to see you, well, virtually in person. Jim Hale did that oh-so-famous interview

00:02:57.360 that was, it actually went all around the world millions and millions and millions of times,

00:03:01.920 and clips were used in very many news broadcasts. But I wanted to ask you, first of all,

00:03:10.020 you've just been out for a little while now, since October, I believe, and how are you feeling right

00:03:17.860 now? Well, I mean, when you just get out of prison, it doesn't matter what happens. Everything's good

00:03:22.100 news, and everything's in. It's a joyful time. So, I'm still a little bit on that. I've actually

00:03:28.520 been surprised and just thankful for the grace of God about how natural everything felt. I've got a

00:03:35.740 really strong family, a strong church community around me, and God has blessed me with just people

00:03:42.740 who welcomed me back, who missed me, who prayed for me. All of you guys at LifeSite, I thank you so much

00:03:48.460 for praying for me. And it's been very natural to step back into just life. So, I'm thankful for that.

00:03:56.380 We just had the re-election of President Trump. That must have been quite something for you as

00:04:01.900 well. Donald Trump being re-elected was a big... I'm very joyful and very relieved, because it's

00:04:08.480 just... I didn't know what to expect going forward with Biden or Kamala Harris in charge of the Justice

00:04:16.400 Department. And in my experience, they can kind of do whatever they want. So, I just thank God for

00:04:22.300 that. I take it as a reprieve from him where, you know, we the people in America, we can show that

00:04:27.980 we're faithful to him, and God will bless the nation who is faithful to him. So, looking forward

00:04:34.240 to that.

00:04:34.860 Indeed. It's one of the things I just want to run over very quickly. What happened in that first

00:04:39.440 incident? People can go back and watch that interview that you did with LifeSite's Jim Hale

00:04:44.000 at the time. But, I mean, basically, you walked in with a huge crowd through an open door,

00:04:49.680 and you prayed in the Capitol. You didn't commit any violence or anything like that. And you're

00:04:55.700 praying for America, feeling that it was... that the election was unjust. Any other thoughts there

00:05:01.340 you can explain your situation?

00:05:02.680 Yeah, I had walked through... you know, walked in an open door to the Capitol. I, you know,

00:05:05.920 found out later through some other videos and stuff that it had been opened by a man who had

00:05:11.160 smashed the window. And he unlocked... he pushed the latch of the door open, but somebody from the

00:05:17.000 inside had unlocked the magnetic lock, which, I mean, this is the U.S. Capitol building. It's

00:05:20.600 obviously a very secure facility. So, you know, there's some cooperation there with this guy on

00:05:26.220 the outside and the people on the inside. But for the most part, we walked in. It was a really

00:05:29.960 passionate crowd. People were yelling. Some people were ransacking offices and stuff. And I actually

00:05:36.440 intervened at one point and told them to stop. You know, that was presented at trial and used as

00:05:41.140 evidence to convict me of one of my misdemeanor trespassing charges, because I had to go into

00:05:45.940 an office to do that, which was a specially protected office under the law. I didn't know.

00:05:50.240 I figured I was doing a good thing, you know, telling people to stop ransacking an office.

00:05:54.260 But the U.S. Attorney's Office disagreed. And so, yeah, we walked in through. We ended up

00:06:01.260 on the Senate chamber floor and somebody said, you know, hey, we ought to pray. And that was,

00:06:06.800 you know, I was basically just reacting to everything throughout that day. You know,

00:06:09.880 you don't really think in a moment like that. I just wanted to see what was going on

00:06:13.340 from what I discerned as a like a very important moment in our country's history.

00:06:18.680 But someone said, hey, you know, we ought to pray. And so that got through to me. And I was like,

00:06:23.740 that's really what we need right now. Like, because we are in total disarray as a nation. And,

00:06:30.060 you know, whatever I was upset about in the way our elections are going, how the government was acting

00:06:34.700 and all that. I know very well and remain convinced that it's just an expression of

00:06:41.020 generations of us leaving God, you know. And what do we expect? Except, you know, that will lead to

00:06:49.160 hardship, that will lead to oppression and slavery and all these things. Like, that's laid out for us

00:06:54.500 over and over again by God. We see it in the examples of history and the examples of the Bible

00:06:58.500 and the teachings of Jesus. And so we prayed. And that was, you know, to me, the most important

00:07:04.720 thing I did that day. And, you know, we interceded on behalf of our nation for just mercy.

00:07:13.020 A lot of people are stunned to hear that there are so many arrestees, that there are so many

00:07:19.060 imprisoned over this J6 incident. So many like you who weren't violent, weren't, didn't break down 0.99

00:07:28.300 a door or anything to get in, just walked in and just prayed, interceded for America, looked around.

00:07:37.020 How many have you seen? And I'd like to ask you about your interaction with them, because I know

00:07:41.940 you've had some. I haven't met a lot of them, but I was in a cell in FMC Rochester, Rochester Federal

00:07:49.420 Prison, where I was with one of them. And it's just so awful because, you know, you don't know the

00:07:54.840 whole story and you don't even realize, I didn't realize how infiltrated my mind had become with

00:07:59.440 sort of the main narrative, because I had assumed, well, the people who are charged with violence

00:08:04.700 against police and things like that, well, they sort of deserved it. And, you know, there, I

00:08:08.740 definitely saw people who were doing things they shouldn't have been doing. But anyway, this guy in

00:08:13.200 my cell, he's got a whole story on Epoch Times did a bunch of reporting on him and he was down in the

00:08:18.820 tunnel where all the violence was and stuff. But one of the things he did, he was charged with two

00:08:22.900 counts of some kind of assaulting or something of an officer. One of them, he pled guilty to and

00:08:29.120 said, yeah, I did that. And, you know, I really shouldn't have. And it was awful. And, you know,

00:08:32.480 that my bad, basically. The other one, the other officer testified at trial that he did not assault

00:08:39.700 him, but they still charged him with the crime and the jury still convicted him. So it's just

00:08:44.660 like there's no one seeking justice in this situation. Like the motto of our Justice Department is

00:08:51.960 Latin. But what it means is, you know, the one who prosecutes on behalf of justice. But they're just 0.99

00:08:57.160 not doing that. It's all like I've heard someone described as they're drunk on January 6th. And

00:09:02.800 that's really what it's. They're just like intoxicated with this like vicious hatred for

00:09:06.960 for no reason. Like, what did we do to you? You know what I mean?

00:09:10.220 And what has been going on in the public mind is is quite something. We had a similar thing in

00:09:15.940 Canada with the truckers. Somehow it was parlayed into some kind of insurrection,

00:09:23.000 something against the Canadian people, against the state.

00:09:26.940 Yeah.

00:09:27.240 And yet it was exactly the opposite for so many of you who were in there.

00:09:31.300 I want to ask you, too, about this beautiful message that you conveyed to your fellow prisoners,

00:09:37.740 one of deep, deep love for Jesus Christ and reaching out to him and identifying with him.

00:09:43.580 Tell us about that, if you will. And what what also inspired you to do that?

00:09:47.460 I am 100 percent loyal to Jesus Christ. He is salvation. He is protection. He is healing.

00:09:51.940 He is deliverance. He is he is everything that I hope to be. And and by his grace, am I'm so

00:10:00.380 thankful for. And a lot of the things, you know, what he says about how we win, how we conquer the

00:10:05.200 world, how do we overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony? So what that

00:10:10.000 tells me is if I'm following Jesus, this is the guy who had the worst injustice in human history

00:10:16.380 perpetrated against him on the cross. Right. He no way deserved that. Not even close. And you know

00:10:22.120 what he said? Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do. So if that's good enough for him,

00:10:29.460 it's good enough for me. That was my rationale. And I just recognize that, like, OK, I think God can

00:10:36.680 work through this in my experience. And if he can do that for me and vindicate me and save my nation

00:10:42.920 through through my suffering, at least I'll play my part faithfully, then that is available to every

00:10:49.040 one of the January Sixers. Like all we have to do is turn our eyes off of ourselves, stop whining about

00:10:55.860 the injustice and say, I am going to be a faithful servant of God. I you know, this nation is born out

00:11:03.180 of the principles that we're all created equal and we're endowed by our creator with, you know,

00:11:07.900 the rights that we all know. And the reason that governments are instituted among men is to secure

00:11:13.820 those rights. So if that God, the creator did all that, but yet gave up his rights and that's how he

00:11:22.080 got legitimate authority over the world back in his hands, then I'm willing to participate in his

00:11:27.880 same methodology and just trust him that he will be the one that vindicates me and takes care of the

00:11:35.020 things that my heart is really concerned over, like justice and peace and prosperity and things

00:11:40.260 like that in America, you know. Pope Pius XI said men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom

00:11:48.460 of Christ. And he urged that the faithful give public honor to Christ the king so that individuals

00:11:53.840 and states would submit once more to the rule of their savior. And that is why LifeSite News is

00:11:59.760 raising up the image of Christ the king across the United States. And you can help us reach millions

00:12:06.220 more. Please pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com slash Christ is king.

00:12:14.180 What does it feel like to be imprisoned? The fact that it's unjustly is a matter too, but you're in

00:12:21.560 there. What is it? Is it scary? Were you scared? How did that work for you?

00:12:27.640 Well, I can testify to the truth that God keeps in perfect peace those whose minds are set on him.

00:12:34.760 And I will not say, I did get fearful. I did get anxious. I got depressed. But every one of those

00:12:41.300 times, it was because my mind was either casting backward towards something or forward to something

00:12:47.640 to worry about. If my mind was on Jesus, I was kept in perfect peace. So I can attest to his

00:12:55.200 faithfulness in that. The prison that I was in, it was a federal federal medical center in Rochester,

00:13:00.800 Minnesota. It's a low security thing. So they're not most of the people there or all of the people

00:13:08.100 there are there because they are deemed to be a low violence risk. They're not really a threat.

00:13:14.460 So there wasn't a lot of time locked in a specific cell. I was able to go outside. There's a track I

00:13:24.220 could walk around. I could exercise. There was a weight pile. They would have intramural sports

00:13:28.660 leagues. So it's really difficult to be in prison. And it's dehumanizing because you can just be told

00:13:36.600 what to do at any moment. And the guards just have total power over you. But for me, I was respectful

00:13:45.300 to them. For the most part, I got along. God just was faithful to me in that he never gave me anything

00:13:52.120 that I couldn't handle. And not even really close. He was really good to me in that way. And I got to do

00:13:59.300 interesting things too. I got an opportunity to work in the plumbing shop. So the prison's a big

00:14:06.600 facility. There's a lot of toilets and sinks and things like that. So they have a little inmate

00:14:12.080 workforce that helps with that. And I got to do that. And I'm not a blue collar worker, but I learned

00:14:16.460 to be a blue collar worker. And I learned some valuable skills. And what I tried to do is just

00:14:22.140 be faithful to God and make the best of it. And he blessed me in that. Weirdly enough, despite the

00:14:29.880 fact that you were in already for a year less a month and were released, they're trying to put you

00:14:39.440 back in. Can you unpack that for us? The way I was released was a total shock to me. I knew the

00:14:45.820 Supreme Court had issued this ruling, so I was no longer a felon. We had made a joint motion. My

00:14:51.760 attorney and the U.S. attorney's office had made a joint motion to vacate the felony charge per the

00:14:57.520 Supreme Court ruling. So that was like, everybody was good with that. What that did was it took my

00:15:02.420 sentence from 30 months down to 12 months. When you're in prison, you can get credits for this

00:15:08.260 thing called the First Step Act, which if you're in their program, you get 15 days removed off your

00:15:13.800 sentence for every 30 days you're in the program. So I had been doing that since day one. So I had a 12

00:15:19.800 month sentence with credits that rewound my release date all the way back to June. So finally,

00:15:26.760 the Bureau of Prisons figured that out. I had no notice. They just called me over to the secretary's

00:15:31.920 office that morning and said, how soon can your family be here? Because we need to get you out of

00:15:35.680 here. So they released me. I'm free as far as I know. It sounds good. Like we're ready to just let

00:15:41.060 it go. Well, then the U.S. attorney's office in Washington reaches out and says, oh, no, this is a

00:15:46.800 mistake. They shouldn't have done that, which, by the way, is the same argument I believe they used

00:15:51.460 to keep Steve Bannon in. They just they just denied him his his first step back credits, which is just

00:15:56.860 illegal. But right. The lot like if you're in power, the law is only as good as the people in power who

00:16:04.840 will protect it. So anyway, they said, oh, this is this is incorrect. It's a wrong calculation. We want

00:16:10.380 to re-sentence Leo. Well, the court, the appeals court did not remand my case for re-sentencing.

00:16:18.000 So there is no re-sentencing. It's just my sentence is over and they just have to deal with

00:16:22.860 that now. So the question is, are you are they going to continue an illegal path to try to put

00:16:28.180 me back in jail, which they may do and they may succeed in doing right. Like probably not beyond

00:16:32.480 when Trump takes office. But like in my experience, like the law isn't like going to protect me in

00:16:39.740 Washington. Like they just generally pick what they want to do and then find a legal rationale to do it.

00:16:46.440 And that's just how they work. And I don't know if you want to get into this, but there has been

00:16:51.020 a lot of rumor that there was a lot of instigators in this who might have been a sort of planned

00:16:57.020 actors trying to instigate something. Did you see any evidence of that before and after or during

00:17:07.620 your imprisonment? Did you get any wind of that? I mean, the biggest thing that was an intimate

00:17:11.900 example for me is that guy who at trial, I found out had smashed the window and reached his hand in

00:17:18.840 and opened the door that I ended up going through. He. To me, clearly was working with someone on the

00:17:24.880 inside of the building who had ability to unlock those the magnetic locks that were that had to

00:17:30.100 be unlocked before that door could be opened. Another weird thing I saw him doing when when

00:17:36.760 we're inside the building, he actually walked up and pulled a police officer to the side and had a

00:17:41.180 side conversation. What he said, I don't know who knows, but like he had some level of relationship

00:17:47.380 where he felt like they could have a side conversation and then just go back about their

00:17:50.900 business. So, I mean, there's all sorts of weird stuff to me. Like, I mean, I, the evil that is in

00:17:57.100 the FBI, like I would, they, I definitely would do something like this. I mean, especially combined

00:18:02.140 with all the other information we know about, you know, Nancy Pelosi turning down like the security

00:18:07.520 forces and stuff. Like to me, there's like, this just doesn't happen. Uh, if, if the government

00:18:14.920 doesn't want it to happen. So, but I mean, that's what I'm sharing is my firsthand evidence. Um,

00:18:21.420 there's much, much more out there, which I'm sure the, uh, the, the viewers of this show know very

00:18:25.420 well. That guy who broke the window, did he ever end up in jail? This is one of the unfortunate things

00:18:30.680 for defendants in Washington, DC. So I'm going through trial. We're looking at that evidence

00:18:36.320 before we're about to go to trial and I'm talking to my attorneys about it. And I'm like,

00:18:39.780 well, shouldn't we get them to identify this guy and tell us who he is and like work down this?

00:18:47.340 And they kind of looked at me and said, well, Leo, that would imply that the government is in on this.

00:18:53.220 And I was like, well, yeah, it's, um, but, but they just wouldn't make that argument.

00:18:58.320 We're right. Like they, they, and, and because in Washington, DC, the government is God to these

00:19:03.400 people. I don't hold any grudges or anything against my attorneys or any, anything like that,

00:19:07.160 but just the way they approached it. And, and like they, the most, the worst thing you can do

00:19:13.960 as a U S uh, as an attorney in Washington, DC is offend a judge. There's like the, the objectives

00:19:19.460 of like justice and peace and things like that are way down the list, like courtroom etiquette,

00:19:25.060 offending a judge, like things like that are by far their biggest concerns. And so, you know,

00:19:31.460 like, that's just like, that's a really broken system. And what am I directive from God? Like I will

00:19:36.700 love, I'll love my enemies. And I don't even, you know, consider my attorneys necessarily to be my

00:19:40.780 enemies, but like, I'm not a grudge holder, but there's, there is a system there that is totally

00:19:46.660 broken with no one seeking justice. And, um, God will bring that to account. And I expect,

00:19:54.400 you know, one of the ways God will do that is through the Trump administration.

00:19:58.580 What are your hopes right now for America? Because we're, we've gone through this period of,

00:20:04.300 of just, I don't know, it's, it's like a civil war being fought on one side. Um, and it's, uh,

00:20:11.220 it's very much the use of the, the powers that be to persecute political enemies. Um, but what are

00:20:18.260 your hopes now for America? We come back under the bond of brotherhood, under the principles that

00:20:24.340 united us to begin with, right? We're the place that is united by the covenant that says we hold

00:20:29.000 these truths to be self-evident. We're all created equal. We're endowed by our creator with inalienable

00:20:33.980 rights that are including a life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The reason why we have a

00:20:39.480 government is to protect those rights and the legitimacy of that, of our government rests on

00:20:43.960 consent of the governed. So if that, if we all can agree on that and take our own personal

00:20:49.520 responsibility to say, you know what, I have to be not just a selfish citizen, but I got to serve

00:20:55.860 my community. I've got to bring, uh, peace and love and joy and, uh, gentleness and strength and all

00:21:03.260 these things to my cubicle, uh, to my church, to my school, to like every, every part of society. We have

00:21:10.840 to do this as a people. And that's the only way our government system is designed to work is with

00:21:16.000 engaged people and we, we can do it right. Like God, we never had a chance as a nation without

00:21:21.980 God, right? The first great awakening in the 1740s was the people that grew up and like shaped in

00:21:29.680 America in 1776 and they were our founding fathers. So God is faithful and he like will respond to us

00:21:38.120 and he wants to bless us. And we, you know, like, well, we just, we got to be willing to do it his way.

00:21:43.420 We got to be willing to humble ourselves and turn away from our wickedness and say,

00:21:47.480 God, you're the one we want. You're, you're the God of America. And, you know, I'm here to testify

00:21:52.140 to that. And, uh, I think if we are faithful to him, God's people are faithful. We are the shining

00:21:59.540 light on the hill and, and, and he, he will respond. I'm convinced. The American constitution's

00:22:07.180 framed under God. And so without him, we can do nothing both literally, but also in the American

00:22:15.020 context. I remember when president Trump made that super famous address in Poland and, uh, he recalled

00:22:22.320 their own emancipation from under communism where they stunned the government when, uh, John Paul II

00:22:30.820 hadn't visited because their chant was, we want God. And it was so stunning to hear Trump recount that.

00:22:39.200 And the people in Poland go insane because they loved that the American president was there reminding 0.99

00:22:46.740 them of this great moment in their own history where they shouted and they shouted again, we want

00:22:52.740 God, we want God. It is the only way, uh, we've been talking on our show about, um, the need for

00:23:00.280 the people of every land to give obeisance, to give real ownership and rulership to the one true God,

00:23:08.040 to Jesus Christ. And without that, you can't be, in fact, God will only bless a land that will turn to

00:23:14.540 him and him in truth. So it is about Jesus Christ. And, and yes, I know there's other different

00:23:20.280 religions and so on. The problem is there's only one true religion. That's why we have, 0.99

00:23:25.060 especially in America, you know, we, we say Christ is King and yes, that causes all sorts of

00:23:30.360 controversy, but it's nonetheless true. And what I love also about America is you've got this great

00:23:35.780 Latin American tradition. So they have in English, Christ is King. And in Spanish, they have Viva

00:23:40.440 Cristo Rey. Leo, final thoughts for us. Just God bless you guys. Thank you so much for, uh,

00:23:45.760 being faithful and, and in the profession of journalism. Like one of the things that journalists

00:23:51.780 in a way, um, you, you guys kind of have the office of, of a prophet in a, in a way in the,

00:23:58.580 in the Bible, like, cause you are the ones who speak the things that are important. And so I just

00:24:04.120 thank you guys for being faithful to your calling. And it's been a long road. God bless you guys.

00:24:09.720 And I'm just, I'm, I'm looking forward to what is next because it's, it's, it feels like is that

00:24:14.500 there's a new day dawning. Leo Kelly. Thank you so much for joining us. God bless you. It's been

00:24:19.300 great to pray for you every day. And, uh, we will continue that to see how God unfolds his will in

00:24:25.460 your life. Thank you, my friend. Bye. And God bless all of you. And we'll see you next time.

00:24:30.860 Hi, everyone. This is John Henry Weston for LifeSite News. We hope you found this video

00:24:39.380 insightful. For more content like this, be sure to check out the links in the description below.

00:24:44.480 You can also follow us on social media to stay updated on the latest news concerning life,

00:24:49.400 faith, family, and freedom. Thanks for watching and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - November 19, 2024

Freed January 6 protester： I prayed inside the Capitol for the good of our country

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