PIERRE, SD (AP) — Trennis Evans III joined the mob during the 2021 U.S. Capitol uprising, climbing through a broken window and taking a sip of whiskey in the convention hall.
Evans was at the South Dakota State Capitol on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to support a resolution encouraging “humane and fair treatment” for those who, like himself, have faced or are facing federal criminal charges related to the January 6, 2021 deadly siege. .
The resolution was defeated unanimously after he appeared before the State Affairs Committee of the Legislature. But Evans’s presence at the South Dakota Capitol underscored how much sympathy for the January 6 attack resounded among the broad masses of the right wing of the Republican Party.
While the Justice Department’s largest-ever investigation expanded to indict nearly 1,000 people like Evans for federal crimes related to the siege, Evans and others involved in the attack found a sympathetic audience in places like the ruby-red South Dakota.
Republican lawmakers tiptoed to discuss the uprising and its aftermath before voting against the resolution at a hearing on Wednesday.
However, for Evans, the hearing itself was a victory.
“I applaud you, this committee, for taking the time to hear and understand in a body that is formed in this way for the first time,” he said, adding that the resolution was put forward in 80 counties in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas, but never before been considered by the state legislature.
State Rep. Phil Jensen, who co-sponsored the resolution along with two other lawmakers, said he hopes Wednesday’s hearing will prompt other state legislatures to make similar announcements. In South Dakota, every piece of legislation must go through a hearing.
“I hope this draws attention to the plight of these political prisoners,” Jensen, who joined the Oath Keepers for a year in 2014, told The Associated Press. The far-right extremist group has been accused of playing a key role in the Capitol uprising.
Of the nearly 400 people sentenced so far on riot-related charges, more than 40 percent have escaped jail entirely. About 150 rioters received six months behind bars or less, according to AP estimates.
Evans of Texas last year pleaded guilty to federal misdemeanor charges for breaking into the Capitol building and urging others to follow him by holding up a bullhorn and saying, “Bring them in,” according to prosecutors. Prosecutors sought a two-month prison sentence, but the judge sentenced Evans to 20 days, with the option to serve the term in installments rather than all at once.
Evans currently runs the legal group Condemned USA and previously gained a following on Gettr, a social networking site founded by a former Trump adviser. Prosecutors said he glorified political violence on social media, including saying in February 2022 that he “likes (d)” a post threatening to “lay down bodies” unless members of the “deep state” “surrender”.
In pre-sentencing court documents, Evans’ attorney called him “highly self-reproachful, genuinely remorseful and duly remorseful.” The lawyer said Evans was “embarrassed by this criminal behavior and the disgrace he has brought upon himself and his family.”
If anything, the punishment has only solidified Evans’ position among those who see the uprising not as an attack on democracy but as a righteous fight to reverse what they see as a stolen 2020 presidential election. Like Evans, some of the January 6 defendants capitalized on their participation in the bloody riots, using it as a platform to raise money, promote business ventures, and build groups committed to helping fellow defendants.
There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 elections, as confirmed by repeated inspections, court cases, and findings from President Donald Trump’s own Department of Justice.
South Dakota’s capital city of Pierre feels isolated amid rolling hills and Great Plains farmlands, but the January 6th political ramifications are steadily reaching the state. Senior Republican officials, including Gov. Christy Noam and Secretary of State Mone Johnson, have repeatedly been ambivalent about whether President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election.
Other Republicans, such as US Senators Mike Rounds and John Thune, have faced backlash from the party’s right wing after speaking out against former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The round, which helped move Electoral College votes out of the Senate chamber attacked by January 6 rioters, clashed with Jensen and other Republicans when he attended a Republican rally at the State Building last week. Jensen and others’ push to speak out about the attack on the Capitol threatens to drive a wedge into the state’s dominant Republican Party.
Some Republicans in the state denounced Wednesday’s proposal as a disturbing confirmation of the attack on the seat of the nation’s government.
“I think that if you attack the United States Capitol, you will become an enemy of America. It’s pretty obvious,” said Republican Sen. Lee Shenbek, a senior lawmaker in his House.
Evans, meanwhile, said he plans to stay at the South Dakota State Capitol this week and continue to press his case.
“That’s how you fight back,” Jensen said. The states created the federal government, not the federal government created the states. It’s a matter of values. Right and wrong are no longer part of politics.”
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Groves reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press reporters Alanna Durkin Reacher of Boston and Michael Kunzelman of Washington contributed reporting.
