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Jerod Wade Hughes

Pardoned January 6 defendant

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Jerod Wade Hughes is a Montana man from East Helena who did something almost nobody in this archive did. Five days after January 6, 2021, he walked into a police station and turned himself in. Nobody kicked his door. Nobody raided his house at dawn. He saw the news, he knew they were looking for him, and he drove down and surrendered. THE SURRENDER FACT: On January 11, 2021, Jerod Wade Hughes and his brother Joshua Calvin Hughes voluntarily turned themselves in to the Helena Police Department after seeing news reports that the FBI was trying to identify them. (Source: KTVH Helena, Montana-connected January 6 cases, four years later.) FACT: That was five days after January 6. Not five months. Not three years. Five days. FACT: Jerod Wade Hughes of East Helena, Montana was 37 during the case. (Source: NPR January 6 case database, compiled from federal court records.) Whatever anybody thinks about that day, put this next to it. A Montana man saw his own face on the news and drove himself to the police. That is in the record and it belongs there. THE CASE CHARGE ONLY, AS FILED: Civil Disorder; Obstruction of an Official Proceeding; Destruction of Government Property; Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds; Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds; Entering and Remaining on the Floor of Congress; Entering and Remaining in Certain Rooms in the Capitol Building; Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building; Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building. FACT: He was arrested February 1, 2021, indicted February 10, 2021, and arraigned March 25, 2021, where he pleaded NOT GUILTY to all counts. A superseding indictment followed December 1, 2021. FACT: On August 25, 2022, he pleaded guilty to ONE count, Obstruction of an Official Proceeding. Every other charge was dismissed. FACT: On January 6, 2023, two years to the day, he was sentenced to 46 months of incarceration, 36 months of supervised release, a $100 special assessment, and $2,000 in restitution. THE LAW CHANGED UNDER HIM FACT: In June 2024, in Fischer v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the obstruction statute, 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2), that was used against hundreds of January 6 defendants. That is the single count Jerod Hughes pleaded to. NEEDS AUTHENTICATION: Whether and how Fischer was applied to his specific judgment requires the native docket. We do not assert it here. We name the decision and the count and let the reader pull the file. THE PARDON FACT: Jerod Wade Hughes received a FULL PARDON on January 20, 2025. THE RECORD Case 1:21-cr-106, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Plea and judgment documents on file at CourtListener. East Helena, Lewis and Clark County, Montana. Brother Joshua Calvin Hughes was charged in the same matter. He turned himself in on January 11, 2021. Put that in the story, because the record does not lie. This profile is unclaimed. If this is you, or your family, claiming it is free, forever.