Guest post by Patriot Legal Defense
The freezing windowless 6×8 steel box was barely wide enough for a man to stretch his arms. No windows. No clock. The only measure of time was the meager flicker of cold fluorescent light above—and the suffocating silence that crept in like a fog.
For 17 months, Zach Rehl lived in that cell at the Alexandria Detention Facility, not as a convicted murderer or violent extremist, but as a Marine Corps veteran and father.
He then endured diesel therapy, starved, confined in chains and box cuffed on a bus for days, while transferred to FCI Petersburg, a medium security prison where he was housed alongside murderers, rapists and child predators.
Guilty of nothing more than walking peacefully through the U.S. Capitol building for 20 minutes on January 6, 2021, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “seditious conspiracy,” a charge usually reserved for enemy combatants or warlords.
***SUPPORT ZACH REHL’S LEGAL DEFENSE HERE***
Now, even after his commutation by President Donald Trump, Rehl remains shackled — this time by a system that refuses to release him from the chains of a conviction that was politically engineered, nothing short of a human rights catastrophe on U.S. soil — in the so-called “freest country in the world.”
“I thought I was going to go absolutely insane towards the end,” Rehl told The Gateway Pundit in an exclusive interview, his voice heavy with exhaustion. “You wake up every day and your mind just splits staring at steel doors.
“There’s nothing to do. One hour a day, they let you out to microwave some food or shower. That’s it. No rec, no sunlight. You’re freezing, you’re alone, you’re losing your mind — and you didn’t even do anything violent. You’re trapped in this box, knowing you’re getting railroaded, and there’s no one coming to help.”
The scene of his life today is still grim. Even after a commutation from President Trump, Zach walks free in name only — his life decimated, his career erased, and his future uncertain.
His wife, six months pregnant at the time of his arrest, now watches helplessly as the mortgage slips through their fingers. Military benefits — earned through honorable service — were stripped.
Before January 6, Zach was building a promising future.
Honorably discharged Marine and J6 political prisoner Zach Rehl.
But now, with the stain of a federal conviction for “seditious conspiracy,” every license Rehl fought for over a decade to earn in the financial field is suspended indefinitely, and with no pardon in sight, Rehl is effectively unemployable.
“I spent ten years getting my degrees, getting certified and licenses, and just as I was about to launch my own financial firm, everything was pulled,” Rehl said. “I can’t work in the field I trained for. We’re basically broke.”
“I have zero income. Nothing. I’m watching our bank account dwindle. My wife’s been managing the bills on a shoestring budget. But the truth is — we’re running out of time. We’re about to lose our home. This is the only home my daughter has ever known.
“I served my country. I got an honorable discharge. I earned those benefits. I don’t come from money. I worked my way up because I was smart. I was good at math. I was finally about to break out of poverty. Now, I’m stuck.”
Zach Rehl isn’t alone. He and his co-defendants, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Dominic Pezzola, are among 14 January 6 defendants whose sentences were commuted but not pardoned — a critical distinction.
Despite his faith in President Trump, the weight of the commutation — rather than a full pardon — hangs heavy. Without a pardon, Rehl’s criminal record remains intact. He is still labeled a terrorist. He still lives under the shadow of felonies that prevent him from seeing VA doctors or even dropping his daughter off at school.
“The commutation saved me from more prison, but it didn’t save my life,” he said bluntly. “People say, ‘Well, you’re free now, be grateful.’ But how free am I if I can’t work, can’t provide for my family, and I’m still on a list that says I’m a terrorist?”
“The charges are still on my record. I’m still listed as a terrorist. Once my daughter goes to school, I won’t be able to even pick her up. The government says I can’t be near school grounds.”
The cost of his legal fight, he estimates, has exceeded $200,000 — and climbing. The Treasury Department has demanded he pay back his military benefits, with interest. There is no safety net. No appeal for clemency. While pardoned January prisoners are suing the government for the injustice they endured, Rehl is still fighting to clear his name and can barely afford legal fees for the appeal. No path forward unless a pardon comes.
“We’re going to lose our house,” he said. “This was our first family home. It’s all we have left.”
***SUPPORT ZACH REHL’S LEGAL DEFENSE HERE***
For Rehl, the injustice began long before sentencing. He recalls the early morning raid by armed federal agents at his home — a scene he describes as something out of a dystopian thriller.
It was just after 8 a.m. when the knock came. Rehl’s pregnant wife answered the door.
Within seconds, heavily armed federal agents stormed up the steps. Ten men in tactical gear, rifles raised, flooded their home like they were breaching a terrorist compound.
Upstairs, Zach threw on clothes as fast as he could, heart pounding, adrenaline surging. He could already hear the agents yelling his name. Moments later, he was in handcuffs, stuffed in the back of an unmarked car. One agent posed for a photo in front of the house, grinning like he’d won a prize.
“Ten guys with AR-15s barged in. My wife was six months pregnant. I was dragged out like a fugitive. Later, one of the agents even posed for a photo in front of our house like it was a trophy hunt.”
Held without bail—despite no charges of violence — Rehl says he was tossed into solitary confinement with no access to sunlight, fresh air, or adequate healthcare.
“They gave us one small blanket in the dead of winter. I’d sleep curled in a ball, my breath trapped under the blanket to stay warm,” he said. “I’d wake up freezing because the blanket would slip off my head. I had to pull it back over and just breathe–breath to stay warm. That’s not a way to live. That’s not a way to treat a human being.”
He described the deep psychological toll: the paranoia, the social withdrawal, the PTSD that still grips him today. Even after release, he avoids the outside world. Social skills deteriorated. Depression and anxiety persist.
“I don’t even like to go outside,” he confessed. “I sit in my house all day. My social skills are shot. I get anxiety just walking out the door. I used to go to the VA for mental health support. Now I have to pay out of pocket for everything. I can’t afford it. I can’t get the help I need.
“The Bureau of Prisons director herself said no one should be in solitary over 30 days. I was there 17 months.”
Rehl isn’t asking for sympathy. He is asking for the truth. He is asking for fairness. And he asks for a chance.
“I’m not rich. I never was. I worked hard to climb out of poverty, to build something for my family,” he said. “That was all taken from me in a single day, without a fair trial, with a media circus painting me as something I’m not.”
“I didn’t commit seditious conspiracy. I didn’t hurt anyone. I didn’t break anything. I walked around a building. Yet I got treated worse than rapists and murderers. This isn’t justice. It’s political punishment.”
He blames the Department of Justice for what he calls a “kangaroo court” fueled by politics, not justice. While incarcerated, he described the show trial to The Gateway Pundit, warning it was akin to what goes on in a communist country, and for speaking out, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly scolded him and added terror enhancements to his sentence. He describes attorneys who, with rare exception, had no interest in fighting — men and women, he says, ideologically opposed to the very people they were defending.
“They treated us like we were already guilty. Even some of the defense lawyers were openly anti-Trump, anti-January 6. They didn’t care about us,” he said.
A man of discipline, military honor, and entrepreneurial ambition is now someone pleading for a pardon — not for pity, but for the ability to live again.
“This isn’t just affecting me,” Rehl said. “It’s killing me physically. It’s killing me mentally. And it’s tearing my family apart.”
Through it all, Zach Rehl remains unbroken in spirit. He still believes. He still fights. And he still proudly wears a tattoo of President Trump on his arm — a permanent symbol of hope and loyalty. But make no mistake: he is hurting. Badly.
Tattoo of President Trump on Rehl’s arm
To President Trump, Rehl’s message is clear: “You know we didn’t get a fair trial. You said it yourself. Please, just finish what you started. Don’t let this destroy everything I’ve tried to build. I need that pardon, sir. I need it to live again.”
And to America — especially those who still believe this is the freest country in the world—Zach Rehl is a painful reminder that freedom, once lost, is not easily reclaimed.
If you believe in fairness… if you believe in redemption… if you believe in America — then help Zach Rehl rebuild what was taken from him. Donate, share his story, and demand justice.
***SUPPORT ZACH REHL’S LEGAL DEFENSE HERE***
Because if this can happen to Zach, it can happen to anyone. Zach Rehl was treated like a war criminal in the land he fought to defend.
And in the “freest country on Earth,” that should terrify us all.
The post Commuted But Not Pardoned: Proud Boy Zach Rehl’s Punishment for Being American appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.