Trump frees 5 Missouri men from prison under Jan. 6 pardon, including 3 from KC area
John George Todd III, a Blue Springs man sentenced to five years in prison last year for injuring a law enforcement officer during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, is now a free man.
The U.S. Marine veteran and four other Missourians who remained in custody for assaulting or obstructing law enforcement officers the day of the attack were among the hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by President Donald Trump Monday on his first day in office.
All five are now out of custody, online Federal Bureau of Prison records showed Wednesday morning.
“All of our defendants who were incarcerated have been released, including Mr. Todd,” said John Pierce, a California attorney who represented more than 50 Capitol riot defendants. The seven he represented who were still in prison were released on Tuesday, he told The Star.
“The long national nightmare of a weaponized justice system these defendants have endured is coming to an end,” Pierce said. “That is just and right. We are extremely grateful to President Trump for taking such bold, decisive and swift action.”
Others, however, see the action as hypocritical and dangerous.
“It sends a terrible message, I think, that you can storm the seat of the national government and clearly commit crimes, be convicted and then you’re pardoned,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor. “It’s just all the wrong messages, especially when Republicans purport to be the party of law and order.”
Tobias said Trump’s blanket pardons were “very rare.”
“It may be unprecedented, just because it’s so sweeping, involving so many people,” he said. “And from what we can tell, I don’t even see that there was any kind of case-by-case evaluation.”
The five incarcerated Missouri men — three from the Kansas City area — were serving sentences ranging from 10 months to nearly six years. On Monday, Todd was in a prison in Kentucky, one was in a prison in North Carolina, two were in Illinois and one was in a halfway house in Kansas City, according to online prison records.
All were covered by the sweeping pardons Trump granted when he signed the executive order in the Oval Office on Monday night. Trump commuted the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and granted “a full, complete and unconditional pardon” to all others convicted of offenses in connection with the Capitol riot. More than 1,200 of the nearly 1,600 people charged have been convicted, and about 300 cases are pending.
The order called for the immediate release of those currently in prison and directed the attorney general to dismiss all pending cases. The Department of Justice was filing motions throughout the day Tuesday to dismiss those cases.
Trump’s action, according to his proclamation, “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”
The pardons saved one Missouri man from having to report to prison next month.
Kyler Joseph Bard, 28, of Joplin, was charged in January 2023 with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers and civil disorder, both felonies. He also faced four misdemeanor counts.
According to the charging document, Bard used a megaphone outside the Capitol to incite rioters and shoved an officer in the process. He fell backwards after continuing to push against the officer, the document said, adding that as he fell, “Bard yelled to the crowd of officers, ‘You’re all a bunch of pieces of s---.’”
Bard pleaded guilty to all charges on May 28. He was sentenced Nov. 15 to one year and one day in prison and ordered to report on Feb. 14.
‘Extremely surprised and appreciative’
“This was sudden and unexpected and equivalent to a Christmas miracle in January,” his Springfield attorney, Joseph Passanise, said in a statement Tuesday night. “Mr. Bard and his family are extremely surprised and appreciative of President Trump’s decision.
“Kyler respected the legal process, expressed remorse for his actions on January 6, and was prepared to report next month to begin his sentence,” said Passanise, who represented six Missouri defendants. “This case has been a nightmare for his family, and he is anxious to close this chapter.”
William Pope, of Topeka, who was facing one felony charge and four misdemeanors and was scheduled for a jury trial in June, spent Tuesday afternoon outside the D.C jail — referred to by “J6ers” as the “D.C. Gulag” — where many gathered to await the release of the defendants being held there.
At 3:09 p.m., Pope posted on X that the Justice Department had filed a motion to dismiss the cases against him and his brother.
“The United States of America has surrendered to the Pope Brothers in court,” he said. “No judgment against us has ever been entered. We are totally innocent!”
In the past four years, 40 residents from Missouri and 10 from Kansas have been charged for their actions on Jan. 6. Their offenses range from misdemeanor counts of demonstrating or picketing to felonies that include assaulting officers and civil disorder.
Of the 10 Kansans charged, nine have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced. Three received probation; one was given probation and 30 days’ home detention; one got 70 days’ incarceration; one received 75 days’ incarceration; one received four months’ incarceration plus two years’ probation; one got 20 months in prison; and one received 55 months in prison.
The only Kansas case pending was Pope’s, which has attracted national attention over his efforts to force the government to release Capitol security footage from Jan. 6.
Of the 40 Missourians charged, 32 have pleaded guilty or have been found guilty in a jury trial or a bench trial before a judge. Of those, 31 have been sentenced, with 15 receiving incarceration time ranging from 14 days to nearly six years. One-third of those prison sentences were for a year or more.
Who is being released?
Ten of the Missouri defendants have already served their time. Here are the five who have just been released:
–Cale Douglas Clayton, 44, of Drexel, was indicted in April 2022. He faced multiple felony charges, accused of struggling with officers and taking a police baton during the melee outside the Capitol.
Body-worn camera video from the Metropolitan Police Department showed Clayton yelling and pointing at law enforcement officers. Among the things he shouted, court documents said: “You guys realize your President told us to be here. Your President! Hey, how does that make you feel? You’re defying your own f------ country!...Are you a Patriot? Or are you a f------ yes man?”
Clayton pleaded guilty in March 2023 to two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees. He was sentenced in July 2023 to 30 months in prison and two years of supervised release. Prison records showed he was at a halfway house in Kansas City on Monday and had a scheduled release date of Feb. 19.
–Todd, 35, was charged in May 2022 with four misdemeanors after he was captured on video making threatening remarks to police officers and illegally remaining in the building.
“At one point inside the rotunda, while near a law enforcement officer, Todd yelled, ‘I swear to God, I’ll hip toss your ass into the f------ crowd, mother ------!’” court documents said.
A federal grand jury later indicted him on felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers that inflicted bodily harm and obstruction of an official proceeding in addition to the four misdemeanor counts.
Todd requested a jury trial, which began in January 2024. After a weeklong trial and three days of deliberations, the jury found him guilty on all six charges. He was sentenced in May 2024 to five years in prison and three years of supervised release. Prison records showed he was in custody at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, with a scheduled release date of May 10, 2028.
–Kyle Kumer, 44, a Kansas City church staffer who authorities say took his mom to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and participated in a concerted “heave-ho” movement against a line of officers during the riot, was charged in June 2023 with civil disorder — a felony — and three misdemeanors.
Prosecutors said Kumer, with his mother in tow, helped other rioters push against the police line in a tunnel entryway on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol where a Metropolitan Police officer was dragged outside by the mob, beaten and repeatedly tasered.
Kumer pleaded guilty in January 2024 to obstructing officers during a civil disorder. He was sentenced in July to 10 months in prison and two years of supervised release. Prison records showed he was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Thomson, Illinois, with a scheduled release date of May 10, 2025.
–Christopher Brian Roe, 40, of Raytown, was accused of assaulting police and carrying a pitchfork on the Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot. He was arrested in July 2023, and his nine charges included multiple felonies.
After arriving at the Capitol, the probable cause affidavit said, Roe moved close to police with the pitchfork in hand. When an altercation erupted between a rioter and a Capitol Police officer, the document said, Roe — with the pitchfork in his right hand — moved forward and pushed the officer with his left hand.
Roe then followed other rioters into the building. While inside, the affidavit said, Roe shoved an officer and wrapped his arm around the officer, impeding him from defending police from the rioters. Roe was forced outside then re-entered and again scuffled with police and blocked them from moving the rioters out. After officers forcefully removed him, the affidavit said, Roe went to the north door of the Capitol, where he tried to break down the doors with a bike rack.
He pleaded guilty in November 2023 to three felony counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding officers and was sentenced in March 2024 to 70 months in prison and two years of supervised release. According to prison records, he was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina, with a scheduled release date of April 5, 2029.
–Rally Runner, 45, of St. Louis — a Cardinals superfan who legally changed his name from Daniel Donnelly Jr. — was accused of using a police shield to help rioters push officers from a Capitol entrance during the riot.
He was charged in July 2023 with civil disorder, a felony, and four misdemeanors. Court documents said Runner — his face painted red — obtained a police riot shield and worked his way to the front of the crowd at the Lower West Terrace tunnel entrance, where he “continued to hold the line as rioters sprayed chemical irritants, threw items, and screamed at law enforcement officers.”
As rioters pressed forward, the documents said, Runner was in the lead, using the shield to push officers back. The officers forced Runner out of the tunnel after about 10 minutes.
Runner pleaded guilty to civil disorder in March 2024. He was sentenced in August to 10 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. Runner was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Thomson, Illinois, and was scheduled to be released on Sept. 3.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 10:34 AM.
