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An Idaho woman convicted for her role in the January 6th Capitol Riot said she's refusing a pardon from President Donald Trump.
Pamela Hemphill, the 71-year-old woman nicknamed "MAGA Granny" by social media users, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison for taking part in the insurrection.
Hemphill made it clear that she feels insurrectionists were "wrong that day" and shouldn't be pardoned.
"Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation," Hemphill told BBC. "I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative."
Hemphill has previously admitted that she believed the big lie pushed by Trump that then-President Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election. She believes the pardons are a part of the Trump administration's efforts to "rewrite history and I don't want to be part of that."
"We were wrong that day, we broke the law - there should be no pardons," Hemphill said.
On Monday (January 20), Trump announced his decision to pardon or commute the sentences of nearly 1,600 people involved in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Riots just hours into his second term.
"These people have already served years in prison, and they've served them viciously," Trump said in a statement Tuesday (January 21). "It's a disgusting prison. It's been horrible. It's inhumane. It's been a terrible, terrible thing."
Hemphill said she's going to find out who to contact to decline the pardon.
"I'm not going to take it. I gotta do some research on who to contact to refuse it," she said. "If I took a pardon, then what I did that day was ok. It wasn't.
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