Pamela Hemphill | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1953 (age 72–73) |
| Occupation | Formersubstance abuse counselor |
| Known for | Participation in theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack, refusing apardon from PresidentDonald Trump |
| Political party | Democratic[1] |
| Convictions | Demonstrating, picketing or parading in a Capitol building |
| Criminal penalty | 60 days imprisonment, 36 monthsprobation, $500restitution |
Capture status | Released |
Pamela Hemphill (born 1953) is an American formerTrump supporter who took part in theUnited States Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
Hemphill was born in California, her mother a waitress and addict and her father an absent alcoholic. After retiring from a 27-yearsubstance abuse counselling career in 2011 and moving toBoise, Idaho, she became politicised during theDakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016, initially attending the protests to oppose the project but later becoming pro-pipeline. She attended anti-mask mandate meetings and protests organised byAmmon Bundy in 2020, and voted for Donald Trump in both the2016 and2020 US presidential elections.
Hemphill livestreamed the 2021 Capitol attack onFacebook, spending about 20 minutes inside theCapitol building. She was convicted and sentenced in 2022 to 60 days in prison with 36 months ofprobation and $500restitution for one count ofdemonstrating, picketing or parading in a Capitol building, to which she hadpleaded guilty. Hemphill is noted for changing her mind onDonald Trump during her time in prison and afterward, supportingJoe Biden and voting forKamala Harris in the2024 presidential election, as well as for her refusal of Trump'spresidential pardon in 2025.
Hemphill was born inCalifornia in 1953. Her mother was a waitress, and was mentally ill andaddicted toprescription drugs. Her father was arailroad worker who was analcoholic, though Hemphill was told that he had died when she was young, and only remembers meeting him once, at five years old. Hemphill has said she was in and out ofcare homes as a teenager, and wassexually abused at this time. Hemphill has made some unverifiable claims about her childhood, including that her mother was a "psychopath" and a possible murderer, and that she remembers her mother performing what she describes assatanic rituals.[2] As a young adult, Hemphill herself became an alcoholic but becamesober in 1979.[2]
In 1984, Hemphill became a drugs and alcohol counsellor forsubstance abuse.[2][3] She voted in the2008 election forBarack Obama, the only time she had voted for aDemocrat before the attack; she has stated that she usually voted for whoever her mostlyRepublican-supporting family recommended.[4] She moved toBoise, Idaho three months prior to retiring from counselling in 2011.[2]
In summer 2016, Hemphill saw a TV news bulletin concerning aprotest byNative Americans and others on theStanding Rock Sioux Reservation inNorth Dakota, 1,000 miles away, over proposals to build aUS$3.78 billion, 1,172-mile (1,886 km) undergroundoil pipe. Seeing that one of the Native American protesters had been apparently bitten by a pipelineguard dog, she travelled to the protest to aid them. When she arrived, she has stated that she was told by the elders that "the protests had been hijacked by other groups like ‘free Palestine’ andBlack Lives Matter [who were] taking advantage of the coverage." She stayed there for a few days before going home.[2]
She was later sent a YouTube video appearing to show that theAlsatian guard dog she had seen in news coverage had been beaten by the man first with a stick. She has said that her brother, a Republican voter, told her to "research the other side"; she came to believe that the protester was the aggressor and was representative of the whole group of protesters. Following this, she wrote in onediscussion forum that she was "pro pipeline", and wrote a self-published book entitledWe Stand! We Rise! We Resist!:Where the Leftist Tactics Began & Now They’re Coming to a City Near You!, which criticised left-wingers as "economic terrorists".[2] She voted forDonald Trump in the2016 United States presidential election.[2][4]
In 2020, she began following right-wing antigovernment extremistAmmon Bundy on social media and later attended his meetings after he began advocating againstmask mandates and other perceived government overreaches during theCOVID-19 pandemic. She has stated that "They were saying that Democrats wanted to turn America into acommunist nation. I didn’t know any Democrats; I was naive. And I liked Ammon. He was talking about theconstitution. He was carrying aBible. I wasn’t particularly religious, but I’d worked the 12-steps programme ofAlcoholics Anonymous, which is spiritual. I thought these were good people doingGod’s will. And, I mean, he was a charmer."[2]
Hemphill was involved in theIdaho Statehouse protest in August that year, objecting toCOVID-19-related bills.[2] The protest resulted in glass in a door being shattered,[5] as well as Bundy's arrest. Later that month, she attended another protest by Bundy's followers atSt. Luke's Boise Medical Center, where a man was undergoing medical treatment after he was injured trying to stop Bundy's arrest. There, she told her fellow protesters to "get outside" when the protesters entered the building, stating that, "We don’t harm people. This is a hospital, there are sick people in here." She livestreamed this protest toFacebook, where she had by this point gained thousands of followers.[2] She again voted for Trump in the2020 United States presidential election, though she had not been to any of his rallies in person before January 6, instead watching them on television.[4]
Hemphill was being treated forbreast cancer at the time of the riot,[3] having undergone amastectomy for the condition in November.[4][2] ForChristmas, her brother bought her a plane ticket so she could join the rally; she has said that "he knew [she] liked to videotape everything," that she "wanted to stream it live," and "liked the attention [her] videos were getting, that these messages were getting heard."[2] On aFacebook post about her plans to join the January 6 rally, she wrote that "it's a war!"[6] The evening before the attack, Hemphill attended an event hosted byfar-right radio hostAlex Jones, posting a video of herself there on herYouTube channel, saying "let's go to the Capitol," and "Don't worry, Trump's coming in office."[4]
Onpain medication,[2] and having brought aselfie stick with her, Hemphill arrived at the "Stop the Steal" rally on the Ellipse late; she heard from different people that Trump would go to theCapitol with a crowd to protest the certification of votes that would finalize PresidentJoe Biden's victory in the2020 election,[4] and thus walked to the Capitol.[2]
Hemphill livestreamed the attack to her 30,000 followers onFacebook.[2] She pushed past police lines three times as the attack began.[7] She has since stated that at one point, she fell down and that a person stepped on her head, breaking her glasses.[2] She was filmed asking for assistance from police after being in the crowd, stating that she had "had surgery," before going to the doors of the capital, disobeying the officer who had told her to rest by a gate.[7] She was seen in theCapitol rotunda, telling fellow rioters to "come on in, come on, have fun... This is your house!"[3] After some time, officers in riot gear entered and a Capitol police officer, who identified himself as "Joe", escorted Hemphill outside.[2]
After exiting the Capitol, Hemphill has since said that she wanted to get away from it, but sawJacob Chansley who was dressed in a fur headdress and buffalo horns, electing to record him rather than leave the area.[2] She entered the office of then-Democratic Speaker of the HouseNancy Pelosi after being encouraged to do so.[2] She later stated again that she was hurt, telling officers that she had "40 stitches".[7] She was escorted out by law enforcement,[3] having spent a total of about 20 minutes in the Capitol building.[2] Hemphill was nicknamed the "MAGA Granny" online following the attack, in reference toDonald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.[8]
Eight months after the attack,Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived at her front door inBoise, Idaho,[3] and she was arrested on August 3, 2021.[9]
At her trial infederal court in 2022, prosecutors argued that she had exaggerated an injury to "distract" officers from dealing with more violent protesters.[7] She pleaded guilty to one count ofdemonstrating, picketing or parading in a Capitol building, and apologized for "everything [she] said and did at the Capitol".[3] In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped three additional misdemeanor charges.[5] She was sentenced by U.S. District Senior JudgeRoyce Lamberth[5] on May 24, 2022, to 60 days in prison with 36 months ofprobation and $500restitution.[9][3] Hemphill'schemotherapy treatment ended just before she entered prison.[2] She served her full sentence at afederal prison inDublin, California, from July 2022.[6] While there, she says she was looked after by a black woman, Michelle West, who was incarcerated for her involvement in a drug-conspiracy case linked to a murder in the early 1990s. Hemphill was released on September 16, 2022.[2] She has stated that she began to doubt Trump's election claims during her time in prison.[6]
Hemphill began seeing a therapist again, and through this came to terms with the fact that that she could have left the crowd outside the Capitol.[2] She has stated that she changed her mind on Trump in April 2023, around the time of her 70th birthday.[6] She has credited multiple causes for this change; she participated in discussions about the Capitol riot onTwitter spaces, exposing her to facts about the riot and the 2020 election.[6][4] In 2025 she said that after leaving prison, "my critical thinking returned. I recognised the facts of January 6 — that Trump had lied about the election being stolen; that Nancy Pelosi was not responsible."[2]
In June 2023 Donald Trump responded to a post onTruth Social claiming that Hemphill would have to spend more time in jail thanHunter Biden, writing the word "horrible". She responded on Twitter, "please@realDonaldTrump don't be using me for anything, I'm not a victim of Jan6, I pleaded guilty because I was guilty! #StopTheSpin".[2][7] She was interviewed byThe Daily Beast, to which she stated that she had broken from "the Trump cult" three months prior.[7] She described herself as an "ex-MAGA Granny" on social media.[6] That September she published anopen letter toCongress in which she wrote "I am not a victim of the government, theJustice Department was not weaponized against me, I was a participant who broke the law." A boyfriend that she had for 12 years left her because of it, and she has stated that she receiveddeath threats.[4]
Hemphill voted forJoe Biden in the2024 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary while living inSummerville, South Carolina, and later supportedKamala Harris when Bidenwithdrew from the election.[4]
Hemphill stated on January 13, 2025, after the2024 United States presidential election, that she would "refuse apardon fromfelon Trump" once he took office, referencing Trump's announcement that he would pardon those convicted for January 6-related crimes. She wrote, "I'm not going to be bullied byMAGA anymore, as those who went as far as calling myProbation Officer trying to get me in trouble backfired on them, thinking I would stop speaking out, just give me more confidence to continue!"[3]
The day after President Trumpissued the pardons, she again emphasized that she would not accept hers and took steps to "file a letter of rejection."[10] She argued that accepting the pardon would be "an insult to theCapitol Police".[11] Under the precedent set byUnited States v. Wilson (1833), an individual has the right to refuse a pardon.[12] In June 2025, formervice presidentMike Pence wrote a letter to Hemphill expressing admiration for her decision to reject the clemency.[13] She has since attended local Democratic Party meetings in Boise.[2]
On January 6, 2026, Hemphill reiterated her apology to Capitol Police officers during a hearing held on the fifth anniversary of the Capitol riot.[14][15]