On Jan. 6, 2021, social media influencer Brandon Straka ran a thriving nonprofit organization with a massive following, had a game plan for red-pilling Democratic minorities, and was personally invited by President Donald Trump to attend a rally.
It all came crashing down when Straka was seen standing on the East Lawn of the Capitol filming people, out of view from the violence and chaos seen around the world. Straka unwittingly became one of the event’s most famous defendants when he was arrested two weeks later by a SWAT team that he says treated him as a terrorist.
He is now confined to his home, claims he has been placed on a terror watchlist, and is on federal probation for the next three years. Straka says the experience has left him shaken.
“The unchecked power of the federal government to come after American citizens who support a man the government establishment hates is terrifying,” Straka told the Washington Examiner. “They have unlimited power and resources to destroy people who reject their politics.”
KNOWN CAPITOL RIOT LEADER SPENT ONE DAY IN JAIL WHILE 80 OTHERS LANGUISH IN ‘DC GULAG’
Straka created the #WalkAway social media campaign before the 2018 midterm elections as an educational tool to encourage Democrats to leave their party. A former Democrat, Straka said he voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and was shattered when Trump won. He conducted research and found, “I had been lied to and manipulated. It made me walk away from liberalism and share what I was learning.”
Straka’s fame skyrocketed as he became a frequent guest at high-powered conservative events. When he was arrested and charged in relation to the Jan. 6 rally, he became one of the case’s most high-profile defendants.
“What happened to me should chill the blood of every American,” he said. “If they can do this to me, they can do it to any other person.”
Straka is among the more than 640 defendants who were charged with crimes, including 75 accused of using a deadly weapon. Of those, 165 have pleaded guilty, including 145 to misdemeanors. Straka falls into the latter category, yet he still found himself jailed in solitary confinement for 48 hours, wondering whether he would be spending the rest of his life in prison.
A team of nine FBI agents descended on his Nebraska apartment approximately two weeks after the riot.
“I was terrified, completely confused,” he said. “They came at the crack of dawn, pounding so hard I thought they would break the door down.”
The lead agent told Straka that he was facing multiple felony counts for his involvement in the Capitol riot. He was handcuffed and taken to a local jail and processed. He had his mug shot taken and was given a jail uniform, a tuberculosis test, and mental evaluation where he claims he was asked questions including, “Have you had sex with a man? If a fight breaks out in the jail, are you able to defend yourself?”
Straka says he was then placed in a concrete cell with a metal door that didn’t open for two days. A tiny vertical sliver passed for a window to the outdoors, and a flap in the door allowed food to pass through.
For those two days, Straka ate food he describes as barely tolerable. He says he thought of hanging himself with a bedsheet.
As he ran the events of Jan. 6 through his mind, Straka wondered how he got caught up in the case that rocked Washington. He said he only went to the Capitol to speak at a pre-arranged rally that never occurred. Although he took video and posted it online, it captured none of the rioting that was taking place on the opposite side of the Capitol.
But at one point on his video, Straka is heard saying, “We’re going in.” He now says he believed it to be a nonviolent action similar to the activists who descended on the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Straka says he never actually entered the Capitol and left soon after making the short video. He claims he didn’t even know a riot was taking place on the other side of the building. Weeks later, he was charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor based on a series of tweets he posted along with the video.
Waiting for trial
Straka was released pending trial, and chaos greeted him back home. Straka says he was evicted from his apartment and his #WalkAway Campaign was in free fall after all of the payment portals for thousands of donors canceled him along with his email platform. Straka then withdrew from social media to avoid creating problems with his criminal case.
It would be another five months before the #WalkAway Campaign was back online and able to start accepting funds, but half the donors were gone.
Mentally, Straka says he was a wreck and likened it to PTSD.
“I was severely traumatized from being in jail and having the FBI come into my house and start taking things,” he said. “For the first four months afterward, I didn’t sleep through the night. I would wake up and shoot out of bed, just running. I walked around my apartment terrified.”
Then, Straka says, he discovered that he was on a terror watchlist as he tried to check in at an airport.
“I’m followed around by a team of TSA agents and sometimes dogs,” Straka said. “They screen me two or three times and swab everything in my carry-on for some kind of substance. It takes hours and makes me feel so degraded.”
In October, Straka accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. Misdemeanor cases often result in no jail time, a fine, and sometimes light probation.
In Straka’s case, federal prosecutors asked for four months of home detention, three year’s probation, community service, and $5,500 in fines.
The prosecutor also argued that the federal government should be allowed to monitor Straka’s phone, email, computer, bank account, and social media for three years. The judge followed the recommendation during sentencing on Jan. 24, except refusing the electronic monitoring and downgrading the detention to three months.
The brief admitted that Straka did not engage in any violence, but rather he “encouraged and celebrated the violence of that day” and abused his responsibility as a public figure.
Looking back, Straka says the worst part of his experience was standing before a federal judge in jail garb and hearing the words, “United States of America vs. Brandon Straka.”
“I had a huge following, and they thought I needed to be taught a lesson through deterrence,” Straka said. He vowed to redouble his efforts to take down the Democratic Party.
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“They took a well-known conservative public figure and made him disappear for an entire year, and now I’m back,” he said.
